SEC Deems DASH, ALGO, and OMG ‘Unregistered Securities’ in Bittrex Lawsuit

According to the recent complaint by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against Bittrex, the securities regulator insists that a few crypto asset tokens were offered and sold as investment contracts and are securities. The news follows the SEC’s designation of several crypto assets as securities, including the case against Terraform Labs, which insists that LUNA and UST were sold as unregistered securities. Additionally, a lawsuit initiated by New York attorney general Letitia James against Kucoin insists that ethereum is also an unregistered security.

Lawsuits Against Crypto Exchanges Bring Lack of Clarity Over Security vs. Commodity Status to the Forefront

This year, U.S. regulators are designating a number of crypto assets as unregistered securities, and the allegations are buried in lawsuits against several crypto exchanges. Bittrex is the latest crypto exchange to be sued this year, following lawsuits against trading platforms such as Binance US, Kucoin, and Coinex, after the SEC accused Bittrex of operating “an unregistered national securities exchange, broker, and clearing agency.” In the lawsuit against Bittrex, the SEC insists that DASH, ALGO, TKN, NGC, and OMG are unregistered securities.

As an example, on page 35, the SEC emphasized that “investors in OMG had a reasonable expectation of profits based on the efforts of others” while discussing the Omisego Project. The securities regulator claims that “materials available at the time of the [initial coin offering (ICO)] indicated that the development of the platform by the OMG Network team could lead to profits for OMG token holders.” On page 37, the SEC discusses DASH, and the regulator emphasizes that “purchasers of DASH invested in a common enterprise.”

Gary Gensler has been promoting Algorand for years

Now that the SEC ruled Algorand a security, is he going to get hit with the same $1.26 million dollar fine he gave Kim Kardashian?pic.twitter.com/ucuOOVxqPS

— LilMoonLambo (@LilMoonLambo) April 17, 2023

The SEC explains how the Dash project has a treasury, Dash Control Group, and describes the Masternodes process. Another crypto asset designated as an unregistered security is ALGO, as the regulator claims it was also sold as an investment contract. This particular crypto asset is being discussed on social media because SEC chair Gary Gensler previously called Algorand a “great technology” and “something you can create Uber on top of,” and…