SEC commissioners Pierce and Uyeda dissent after NFT enforcement action

Commissioners Hester Peirce and Mark Uyeda dissented in part from the SEC's first NFT enforcement action, against Impact Theory, arguing that the case should not have been brought as a securities matter. They said the company's statements did not amount to the promises that form an investment contract under Howey, though they shared concern about hype driving buyers to spend almost $30 million on NFTs. The settlement charges unregistered securities offering without fraud, and the company had already repurchased NFTs for a total of $7.7 million in Ether. The commissioners also raised a list of open questions about how the SEC should guide NFT issuers.