30/08/2023 The SEC brings its first NFT enforcement action

Illustration of a museum frame with a crypto block in it falling off a wall and tipping over forward.

Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios

U.S. regulators continue to hammercryptofirms with enforcement actions, the latest of which dragsNFTsinto the mix.

Driving the news: The Securities and Exchange Commission on Mondaysued Los Angeles-based podcasting firm Impact Theory for allegedly offering securities in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), raising more than $30 million through sales in late 2021.

Background:Impact Theory offered 20,000 NFTs at three levels of rarity ina 2021 offering. The tokens gave buyers "levels" of access to things the company would create, such as to discounts and events.

  • Of note: Impact Theory is not really an NFT company, rather it appears to be a bare-bones entertainment shop centered around entrepreneur Tom Bilyeu.

The intrigue: The SEC's action Monday comes in spite of the company's attempt to remedy the allegations, repurchasing the NFTs, calledFounder's Keys, in the months following the sales, and returning roughly $7.7 million worth of ETH.

What they're saying: Without admitting or denying the SEC's allegations, Impact agreed to destroy the NFTs in question and pay combined penalties of more than $6 million.

What others are saying: SEC commissioners Hester Peirce and Mark Uyedadissentedin the enforcement action, explaining they disagreed, in part, with the application of theHowey analysis.

Arts

https://www.axios.com/2023/08/28/sec-nft-podcasting-impact-theory

Interesting NFTs
Block Chain Dungeon
Once upon a time... a little boy named Leo loved to paint, draw and experiment. He also loved to play with blocks and chains, which drew him again and again into the rooms of his friends Michel and Angelo. Often they also met in virtual rooms of Cryptovoxels, Decentraland, Somnium Space or Sandbox to create new inventions, read books about new technologies, or just swing the brushes. But on this day something gigantic happened. A good friend of Leo came to visit and brought his girlfriend Mona, who wanted a piece of Leo's art on her skin. This was the birth of the NFT's, as Leo developed Non Fungible Tattoos in the Block Chain Dungeon of Michel and Angelo. From that day on people from all over the world came to get NFT's from Leo or one of his students, like "Skeenee the rat", who controls the NFT machine with his laptop. A new age began.
#65952
By OthersideDeployer
CryptoKitties
*hissing noises*! I'm Kitty #454496. I enjoy fighting the patriarchy, sitting on your computer, and riding unicorns. I once groomed a labradoodle. I don't like to talk about it. This will be an amewsing friendship.
Genesis
José Delbo sent me his striking pencil sketch and powerful inked work, which I then interpreted in oil on canvas. I wanted to create a very painterly piece with obvious brush marks etc, but I was also aiming for a nostalgic feel, a kind of 1980’s superhero comic book look, the kind I grew up with. My goal with this animation was to try to recreate, in part, the creative process that both artists went through with the visual information I had. I was able to showcase my painting process more accurately as I could take photographs of my progress throughout. Consecutive images could then be layered like brush strokes over José’s drawing to create the impression that this was one continuous artwork from pencil, to ink, to completed painting. The representation of the line sketch at the beginning, then pencil/ink and lastly the paint layers being applied demonstrate both artists’ struggle for the right lines, tone, form, and colour until the work is finally completed. As the oil was still wet with each photograph the glare of my studio lights can be seen in the brush strokes. Eventually, the figure emerges and as it does, our hero comes to life, looking directly at the viewer -- but is he grimacing in approval or disgust? We will never know for sure as just before he can say anything, white paint is brushed across the canvas entirely and the process begins again. Only the bat is quick enough to escape.
Brave Samurai
This is the second collaborative piece that I have created with the very talented Dutch artist, @eattheart23. Here, a samurai warrior stands guard, honour bound to protect his master even to the death.