SEC concludes Yuga Labs, Bored Ape Yacht Club investigation with no charges

The SEC's decision marks a significant regulatory victory for Yuga Labs, indicating a shift in the agency's stance on NFTs as non-securities.

Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate. Image includes combined content which may include AI-generated content.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has officially closed its investigation into Yuga Labs, the company behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club and CyberPunks NFT collections.

The regulator does not intend to take any further enforcement actions and did not issue any charges against the firm. In a social media post on March 3, Yuga Labs said the closure was a win for creators and NFTs.

It stated:

“After 3+ years, the SEC has officially closed its investigation into Yuga Labs. This is a huge win for NFTs and all creators pushing our ecosystem forward. NFTs are not securities.”

Yuga Labs probe

The SEC had launched its probe into Yuga Labs in October 2022  The agency had been examining whether certain NFTs could be classified as securities under federal law.

Specifically, the SEC was reportedly investigating whether Yuga Labs’ NFT collections, including Bored Ape Yacht Club and related assets, were marketed in a way that could be considered an investment contract under the Howey Test.

The agency also scrutinized the company’s sale of ApeCoin (APE), a crypto associated with the BAYC ecosystem, to determine whether it fell under securities regulations.

With the SEC’s decision to close the case without any charges, Yuga Labs and the NFT industry at large see the move as a significant regulatory victory.

The decision provides some clarity for NFT creators and marketplaces, though broader questions about the classification of digital assets remain unresolved.

Multiple cases closed

The decision to end the Yuga Labs inquiry comes amid a wave of SEC case closures in the crypto sector under new leadership appointed by the Trump administration.

In recent days, the agency has also dropped investigations into Robinhood, Gemini, Uniswap Labs, Consensys, and OpenSea. Meanwhile, the SEC has settled lawsuits with Coinbase and Kraken and is reportedly moving toward a resolution with TRON founder Justin Sun.

This regulatory shift follows years of scrutiny from the SEC, which ramped up its enforcement actions against digital asset companies under Chair Gary Gensler.

The agency had argued that many crypto assets, including certain NFTs, met the definition of securities under the Howey Test, a legal standard used to determine whether an asset falls under SEC jurisdiction.

However, industry leaders have pushed back against this classification, arguing that NFTs represent digital ownership rather than investment contracts.

Despite the SEC’s recent case dismissals, its longstanding lawsuit against Ripple remains in active litigation.

Mentioned in this article