United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Commissioner Hester Peirce said many non-fungible tokens (NFTs), including those with mechanisms to pay creator royalties, likely fall outside the purview of federal securities laws.

In a recent speech, Peirce said NFTs that allow artists to earn resale revenue do not automatically qualify as securities. Unlike stocks, NFTs are programmable assets that distribute proceeds to developers or artists. The SEC official said that mirrors how streaming platforms compensate musicians and filmmakers. 

“Just as streaming platforms pay royalties to the creator of a song or video each time a user plays it, an NFT can enable artists to benefit from the appreciation in the value of their work after its initial sale,” Peirce said. 

Peirce added that the feature does not provide NFT owners any rights or interest in any business enterprise or profits “traditionally associated with securities.”

SEC never prohibited NFT royalties

Oscar Franklin Tan, chief legal officer of Enjin core contributor Atlas Development Services, told Cointelegraph that the recent remarks by Peirce on NFTs and creator royalties have been widely misunderstood. 

Peirce had clarified that NFTs that send resale royalties to artists are not necessarily securities, a view Tan says is legally sound but mischaracterized in some media reports. 

“So Hester Peirce said that an NFT that sends royalties back to the creator after a sale is not a security. This is correct, but the way some media reported this is completely out of context,” Tan told Cointelegraph. “The actual context is that this is not controversial, and it was never considered a security.”

The lawyer said US securities law focuses on regulating investments and not compensating creators for their work.

“The artist or creator is not an investor, not a passive third party in the NFT,” he said, noting that royalty payments are not considered investment income. 

Instead, Tan told Cointelegraph that this type of earning is “analogous to business income,” which the SEC does not regulate. He added: 

“The SEC never prohibited contracts where artists and creators get royalties from secondary sales of their work, not royalties from paper contracts or blockchain protocols.”

Tan explained that the legal distinction becomes more complicated when NFTs promise shared profits from royalties to multiple holders beyond the original creator. 

Tan also urged regulators and market participants to apply traditional legal reasoning to new blockchain technologies. “Ask yourself, if this were done by pen and paper instead of blockchain, would there still be a regulatory issue?” he said. “If none, slow down.”

Related: SEC charges Unicoin crypto platform over alleged $100 million fraud

OpenSea calls on the SEC to exempt NFT marketplaces from oversight

While NFT royalties may not have been a controversial SEC issue, NFT marketplaces are a different case. In August 2024, NFT trading platform OpenSea received a Wells notice from the SEC, alleging that NFTs traded on the marketplace could qualify as unregistered securities. 

On Feb. 22, OpenSea CEO Devin Finzer announced that the SEC has officially closed its investigation into the platform. The executive said that this was a win for the industry. 

Following the conclusion of the SEC’s investigation, OpenSea’s lawyers penned a letter to Peirce, who leads the SEC’s Crypto Task Force. OpenSea general counsel Adele Faure and deputy general counsel Laura Brookover said in an April 9 letter that NFT marketplaces don’t qualify as brokers under US securities laws. 

The lawyers said the marketplaces don’t execute transactions or act as intermediaries. The lawyers urged the SEC to “clearly state that NFT marketplaces like OpenSea do not qualify as exchanges under federal securities laws.”

Magazine: NBA star Tristan Thompson misses $32B in Bitcoin by taking $82M contract in cash

South Korea is tightening rules around digital asset transactions as it prepares to allow institutional players into its crypto market, introducing new guidelines for nonprofit crypto sales and stricter listing standards for exchanges.

On May 20, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) of South Korea said during its fourth Virtual Asset Committee meeting that it had finalized sweeping new measures.

Set to take effect in June, the updated rules allow both nonprofit organizations and virtual asset exchanges to sell cryptocurrencies, but under new compliance standards.

Nonprofit entities must have at least five years of audited financial history to be permitted to receive and sell virtual asset donations. They will also need to establish internal Donation Review Committees to assess the appropriateness of each donation and the liquidation strategy.

To reduce risks of money laundering, all donations must be routed through verified Korean won exchange accounts, with verification responsibilities placed on banks, exchanges and the nonprofits themselves.

Furthermore, only cryptocurrencies listed on at least three major domestic exchanges will be eligible, and liquidation is expected to occur immediately upon receipt.

Related: Top South Korean presidential hopefuls support legalizing Bitcoin ETFs

Exchange sales to be restricted

Crypto exchanges will be allowed to liquidate user fees paid in crypto, but only to cover operational costs. Sales will be capped at daily limits, typically no more than 10% of the total planned amount.

Furthermore, sales will only be permitted for the top 20 tokens by market cap across five won-based exchanges. Importantly, exchanges are barred from selling tokens on their own platforms to prevent conflicts of interest.

South Korea is also tightening standards for listing digital assets. The revised rules aim to curb instability from sudden price spikes by requiring a minimum circulating supply before a token is allowed to trade and temporarily restricting market orders post-listing.

So-called zombie tokens (with low volume and thin market caps) and memecoins without clear utility will face more scrutiny. For instance, exchanges must delist tokens if they fail to meet liquidity benchmarks or community engagement thresholds.

Starting in June, exchanges and nonprofits can apply for real-name accounts to facilitate these sales. Later this year, the FSC plans to extend real-name accounts to listed firms and professional investors.

Cointelegraph contacted South Korea’s Digital Asset eXchange Association for comment, but had not received a response by publication.

Related: RedotPay enters South Korea with crypto-powered payment cards

South Korean candidates push pro-crypto agenda

South Korea’s Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung has proposed launching a stablecoin pegged to the Korean won, aiming to curb capital flight and bolster the country’s financial autonomy.

Speaking at a recent policy forum, Lee said a won-based stablecoin could help retain domestic wealth and reduce dependence on foreign-backed digital currencies such as USDt (USDT) and USDC (USDC).

The initiative is part of Lee’s broader push for digital asset reforms, which also includes legalizing spot crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

His rival, Kim Moon-soo of the ruling People Power Party, has also expressed support for introducing spot crypto ETFs, signaling bipartisan momentum on the issue.

Magazine: NBA star Tristan Thompson misses $32B in Bitcoin by taking $82M contract in cash