The United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC's) lawsuit against Terraform Labs and its co-founder Do Kwon could be seen as an SEC “roadmap” to taking down other stablecoins, according to a lawyer.
Gabriel Shapiro, general counsel at investment firm Delphi Labs, explained to his 33,800 Twitter followers on Feb. 16 that the SEC’s arguments in its complaint against Kwon and Terraform were “more thorough than usual.”
Shapiro’s analysis follows the SEC’s Feb. 16 lawsuit against Kwon and Terraform alleging they “orchestrat[ed] a multi-billion dollar crypto asset securities fraud involving an algorithmic stablecoin and other crypto asset securities.”
Shapiro suggested the case could serve as a “roadmap” for how the regulator may sue other stablecoin issuers in the future. He acknowledged the SEC made the case that Terra’s algorithmic stablecoin, TerraClassicUSD (USTC), constitutes a security:
“[The SEC] will allege that integration, promotion, marketing, commercial deals etc building the stablecoin ecosystems are ‘efforts of others’ that are ‘reasonably expected’ and can lead to profits in connection with the stables.”