As the cryptocurrency industry calls for "regulatory transparency," the question of "Should stablecoins be classified as securities?" remains a concern. Now, with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) quietly ending its investigation into Binance USD (BUSD) and its issuer Paxos, "without recommending enforcement action," this may indicate that in most cases "the answer is no." .

The U.S. SEC issued a "Wells Notice" to stablecoin issuer Paxos in February last year, which mentioned that the BUSD issued by the company in cooperation with Binance was suspected of being an "unregistered security." Therefore, the matter will be investigated, and when the US SEC subsequently filed a lawsuit against Binance, it also claimed in the complaint that "BUSD is a security."

Note: A Wells Notice is an informal reminder issued by the U.S. SEC's law enforcement department before it initiates a civil lawsuit against a company. The company that receives the notice can communicate and negotiate with the SEC within 30 days. If law enforcement officials still believe that the company has violated securities regulations, It will recommend to the SEC that enforcement actions be initiated, and then the SEC members will meet to vote on whether to adopt the recommendations made by the enforcement department.

In response to the latest developments in this investigation, Paxos issued a statement on Thursday stating that the U.S. SEC had issued a "formal notice of termination" on July 9 and stated that it "will not recommend taking enforcement action against Paxos in the BUSD investigation." This The decision also provides clarification on BUSD’s status as a non-security.

Paxos added:

Paxos has always maintained that its U.S. dollar stablecoin is not a security under the federal securities laws and that the Wells Notice is unfounded and unreasonable.​

Walter Hessert, head of strategy at Paxos, said in an interview: "The formal termination of this investigation is a huge relief for us. This is what we have expected all along, and it should indeed create more certainty for the market. We see More and more large companies are joining this field.”

An SEC spokesman, on the other hand, said the agency does not comment on "investigations that may or may not exist."

〈Indicate that “stablecoins are not securities”? The U.S. SEC terminates its investigation into Paxos and BUSD and decides not to prosecute. This article was first published on Blockchain.