The ending of enforcement actions against several crypto firms, indicates a changing tide when it comes to crypto regulation, says Finzer.
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) enforcement approach on crypto firms has left a lasting “regulatory overhang” within the industry, according to Devin Finzer, co-founder and CEO of OpenSea.
Speaking to Cointelegraph, Finzer said that during Biden’s administration the agency unfairly targeted good actors in the crypto space, including OpenSea. “There’s all sorts of digital assets, you know, you shouldn’t treat them all the same. That’s obvious. But I think the approach that the prior SEC was taking was kind of this, you know, very, very generic.”
The SEC issued a Wells notice — a formal notification that is often a precursor to enforcement action — to OpenSea in 2024, alleging that the NFT marketplace was operating as an exchange for unregistered securities. At the time, Finzer criticized the SEC for taking an approach of “regulation by enforcement” and said that OpenSea was prepared to “stand up and fight.”
