NFTs Are Now Officially Securities

In NIA's December 14, 2021, 'Crypto is Ponzi Built on Ponzi Built on Ponzi' alert we said:

"Billions of dollars of newly created NFTs are being sold on the centralized exchange OpenSea, not because of art but because of the roadmaps that the project creators publish with promises that they will never follow through with such as promises to release a video game in nine months or the payment of royalties based on future NFT sales or even the ability to breed new NFTs. These NFTs create artificial demand for Ethereum and are responsible for the majority of Ethereum transactions, giving it the appearance of growing user adoption, but it is really just speculation from investors trying to buy the next CryptoPunks and 99.9% of the time it ends in a rug pull. Any NFT with a roadmap is an unregistered security and has nothing to do with art."

Today the SEC settled with Impact Theory after they sold $29.9 million in Founder's Key NFTs. The SEC said the NFTs issued by Impact Theory were unregistered securities. Impact Theory agreed to a cease-and-desist order and paid a $6.1 million settlement, while agreeing to destroy all of the NFTs that it still controls. Impact Theory will also eliminate any future royalties on OpenSea.

NIA's President knows Tom Bilyeu the owner of Impact Theory and was previously a guest on Impact Theory, which you can watch by clicking here. Although we had no idea that Tom Bilyeu had even issued these NFTs, NIA has consistently spoken out against the NFT cash grabs of other people who have issued NFTs including Gary Vee and Logan Paul. We consider NFT cash grabs to be a scummy thing to do, because the buyers are expecting to profit from the work of the project creator, which is what makes the NFT a security.

Impact Theory apparently promised its viewers that they were "trying to build the next Disney" as to why they should buy their NFTs. This actually sounds a lot like what Gary Vee repeatedly said about Veefriends, but today Gary Vee is radio silent about Veefriends after cashing in $121 million from Veefriends sales. Gary Vee's followers are now down by 90%+ on Veefriends!