​Bored Ape Yacht Club creators are under investigation by the SEC

Remember that scene () in the seminal 1999 box office hit, Big Daddy?

The one where Adam Sandler and his semi-adopted son are playing cards, and no matter what hand the kid has - he claims he's won?

Regulating cryptocurrency without first giving clear regulatory guidelines feels a bit like that...

The rules aren't set - so how does anyone know what to play by?

Bloomberg have just reported that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are investigating Yuga Labs, the creators of the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT series.

The Commission is exploring whether Yuga broke federal law by issuing NFTs and crypto tokens (specifically, Ape Coin) that act like stocks.

Yuga Labs could well have done so - we have no idea, we're not lawyers - the problem we discovered when trying to learn more, is that it's all a little muddy.

In the eyes of the law:

• Are NFTs art or an investment vehicles?

• Are crypto tokens commodities (unchanging 'things', like gold or oil) or securities?
  ​
  (Something that promises the fulfillment of a goal - like stocks, which promise a company will try to build its business and return money to its share holders).

The rules haven't been set, and the general worry from most in the Web3 space is that we're going to see regulatory framework laid out via enforcement, rather than a clear framework.

Meaning, government bodies like the SEC might decide to continue filing cases against blockchain companies - where the cases they win, become de facto laws, thanks to legal precedent.

(I.e. the rules will be set after the punishment).

Rough!