OpenSea receives SEC Wells notice

OpenSea has announced that they received a Wells notice from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, warning them of a likely lawsuit from the agency. According to CEO Devin Finzer, "they believe NFTs on our platform are securities". Finzer did not provide any more details about the scope of the SEC's notice.

Finzer promised that the company would vigorously fight any impending lawsuit.

The lawsuit echoes previous enforcement actions by the SEC, such as a September 2023 settlement with the celebrity-backed Stoner Cats project, in which the SEC suggested that it may broadly view NFTs as securities if investors "reasonably expect to profit" from the continued efforts of those who release the NFTs.