Solana Foundation finally addresses ‘the elephant in the room’ and denies Solana’s native token is a security
The Solana Foundation remained quiet for days after the Securities and Exchange Commission said that SOL, the native token on the Solana blockchain, was an unregistered security in lawsuits against Binance and Coinbase.
But on Thursday, the Foundation finally fought back against the SEC’s allegations.
“The Solana Foundation strongly believes that SOL is not a security,” a spokesperson said in a statement to Fortune. “We welcome the continued engagement of policymakers as constructive partners on regulation to achieve legal clarity on these issues for the thousands of entrepreneurs across the U.S. building in the digital assets space.”
Amira Valliani, the foundation’s head of policy, similarly argued against the SEC’s claims during a panel entitled “WTF is going on in crypto policy” at the Solana NYC Hacker House, an event for developers and investors.
“Now, I just want to address the elephant in the room,” she said almost 10 minutes into the panel. “SOL is not a security.”
The comments from the Solana Foundation come three days after the SEC named SOL and 12 other tokens—including Cardano’s ADA, Polygon’s MATIC, and Binance’s BNB—as unregistered securities in its two blockbuster lawsuits against Binance and Coinbase, two of the top crypto exchanges in the world.
On Monday, the SEC targeted Binance, the largest exchange by trading volume, and its CEO, Changpeng Zhao. In a 136-page suit, it alleged that Zhao and his company commingled customer funds, offered customers unregistered securities, and blatantly avoided complying with U.S. securities law.
The following day, the SEC then sued Coinbase, the U.S.’s largest exchange, and similarly alleged that it sold unregistered securities, operating as an unregistered broker, securities exchange, and clearing agency.
Shortly after the federal government dropped both lawsuits, the prices of the tokens it said were securities fell precipitously. Cardano’s ADA is down approximately 5% since the Binance litigation first became public, according to CoinMarketCap. Polygon’s MATIC has dropped almost 12%. And SOL is also down approximately 12%, plummeting from almost $22 to $19.
Other than Solana, the foundations that represent the 13 tokens have generally remained quiet. However, the cofounder and COO of The Sandbox, whose cryptocurrency SAND was also named in both lawsuits, also strenuously rebutted the SEC’s allegations.
“We are obviously aware of the litigation advanced against Binance and Coinbase in the U.S. from the SEC,” Sabastien Borget said during a conference in Lisbon, reported Decrypt. “We do not necessarily agree with the characterization that’s been put in that litigation, including the qualification of SAND as a security.”
