🚨SEC Gary Gensler Declares WAR on NFTs and OpenSea! Trump Cards Next?

Intro The SEC thinks nfts are securities, and they have sent a wells notice to OpenSea, the largest NFT marketplace. Will Donald Trump be sued next by the SEC as he just released nfts? And speaking of Donald Trump, he has launched his DeFi platform. I'll share the details with you. Let's get into it. Hey, everybody. Welcome into the Thinking Crypto podcast, your home for cryptocurrency news and interviews. I'm your host, Tony Edward. On your way in, please hit that subscribe button as well as a thumbs up button and leave a comment below. If you're listening on a podcast platform such as Spotify or Apple, please leave a five star rating and review. Folks, the big news of the day, and I'm SEC OpenSea NFT Wells Notice sure many of you have heard already, and that is the SEC has sent a wells notice to OpenSeA, which is the largest NFT marketplace. And the SEC specifically Gary Gintzer, views nfts as security securities. Here's what Devin Finzer, who's the co founder and CEO OpenSeA, tweeted out. OpenSea has received a wells notice from the SEC threatening to sue us because they believe nfts on our platform are securities. We're shocked the SEC would make such a sweeping move against creators and artists, but we're ready to stand and fight. Cryptocurrencies have long been in the crosshairs of the SEC, and companies like Coinbase, Uniswap, Robin Hood, Kraken and Consensys have been fighting against the SEC's single track approach of regulation bye enforcement. But this is a move into uncharted territory. By targeting nfts, the SEC would stifle innovation on an even broader scale. Hundreds of thousands of online artists and creatives are at risk, and many do not have the resources to defend themselves, he says. Nfts are fundamentally creative goods, art, collectibles, video game items, domain names, even tickets and more. We should not regulate digital art in the same way we regulate collateralized debt obligations. Now, he highlight, he continues, I'm not going to read everything he highlights highlights the recent lawsuit, which was done by song day man and conceptual artists, and Brian Fry, who sued the SEC regarding this. And he also mentioned they're pledging $5 million to help cover legal fees for NFT creators and developers that have received a walls notice. Every creator, big or small, should be able to innovate without fear. And he says, look, we're going to take the SEC to court. We're going to fight back. So guys, this should come as no surprise because Gary Genzer number one, is a scumbag regulator. We've talked about it ad nauseam. He's under the control of Elizabeth Warren, who's under control by the tradfi incumbents who are getting disrupted. And they have weaponized the SEC and Gary Genzer to go after these crypto startups and platforms. That's the game here, because I've often laid it out where you have two things happening in parallel. Wall street is here launching, ETF's, tokenizing. They're not getting wells notices, are being sued. But the crypto startups are right. How can these two things be happening simultaneously? So we got to keep fighting as we have been. We have been winning in the courts and in the court of public opinion. Gensler has been taking massive hits. Even presidential candidates like Donald Trump have called for his firings. Donald Trump said he would fire Gary Ganser if reelected on the first day. And even Democrats have turned their backs on Elizabeth Warren and Gary Ganzer. However, I thought Gensler was done. I thought, you know, over the summer, it's been quiet. Maybe all the political pressure that's been mounting, he would run and retreat given the elections coming up, but now he's back at it. They're ramping up their efforts. So we got to keep fighting. Now, this is not the first go around with NFTs. If you recall, the SEC went after stoner cats last year, and stoner cats didn't have the money to fight the SEC in court, so they just settled and they said, hey, we're not agreeing to any thing the SEC said, but we'll settle and we'll stop our nfts. We'll pay to $1 million and so forth. And that's what a lot of companies have done because it is very costly to fight the SEC in court. Just look at the ripple case. Ripple had to pay $100 million in legal fees, folks. That's crazy. But thank goodness they did, because they really kicked off the proactive approach by the SEC to come together, raise campaign donations to support pro crypto candidates and fight back. The industry is not scared anymore. It used to be back in the day, you get a wells notice, everybody would panic. Everybody was go crazy. Now people are just angry, like, you know what? Gary's a scumbag, and we're going to fight the SEC. And we've been seeing big losses for the SEC. In the grayscale case, they got called arbitrary and capricious. And the debt box case, they got sanctioned by the judge. In the Ripple case, they lost the lion's share of that case. Now, if you recall last year, Gary and Congressman Richie Torres, who did a great job grilling Gary, hearing they talk a bit about nfts. Let me play the clip for you guys to refresh your memory. Can I, can I ask, suppose I were to purchase a Pokemon card, would doing so constitute a security transaction? You could purchase a Pokemon card. I don't know what the context is, but if you're just purchasing a Pokemon card, if I purchase a Pokemon card, is that a security transaction or. That's not a secure. Okay, if I were to purchase a tokenized Pokemon card on a digital exchange via a blockchain, is that a security transaction? I'd have to know more. Okay. So for you, the process of tokenization is what transforms a non security transaction into a security transaction. Look, if the investing. I thought you were technology neutral. If the investing public is anticipating profits based upon the efforts of others and they're exchanging funds, that's the core. See, my time has expired. So. So there you have it. See, Gary is saying that, uh, anything on the blockchain is a security, which is ridiculous, right? So I can't put a comic book or baseball card on the blockchain. These are all collectibles. Now, it all goes back to what packaging is being put forth, right? It wasn't the oranges or the orange trees or the orange grove in the Howie test. It was Howie's packaging is, you know, saying, hey, you're going to get this amount of return if you come through my whole scheme and so forth. Obviously, that's a security. So people can take nfts, they can take crypto tokens and do that. But that's very different from what Gary's saying. Gary saying it's all securities, right? He's making a blanket statement. And that even at the creation, if you're a ten year old minting an NFT, you just made a security, which is ridiculous. It's asinine. Right, folks? So we got to keep fighting. This is clearly overreach. This is scumbag activity from a scumbag regulator. And that's what I've been calling him for years. And now I hope some of you see why. It wasn't hyperbole. It wasn't to get views. It's, this is what we're dealing with. And I've been down in DC, I've talked to different people about this, and there's things they want to say, but they can't. Even members of the Senate and Congress who know what Gary's doing. Some who are, uh, have experience with securities laws. They want to say certain things about Gary, but they can't. And I'm not bsing you guys. I've spoken to people down in DC about this. So Gary Gintzer is a scumbag, and we got to keep fighting. But one thing's for sure, the industry, like I said, is punching, punching back against this bully. They're raising tons of capital and taking it to the courts. So Gary is on the losing side of history. But as mentioned, he's a puppet. He's doing his work here. And look, a ton of people are weighing in on this, and I can only share just a handful because it's too much. Uh, you can definitely check out twitter or x about this, but here, Catherine Mineric, who is the CLo at uniswap, which recently got sued by the SEC, by the way. Uh, she says if nfts are securities, everything collectible is a security, and that's obviously not the law. Such a disappointment to see the SEC continuing to waste its resources intended for investor protection, investigating and suing artists. It makes no sense. Now, guys, I've often stated if someone broke the law and they're actually scamming people, then the SEC should stop them. But that's not what's happening here. So I want to make sure this is clear. I am not against stopping scammers. Obviously, we need to do that. But gary's trying to destroy everything from the base level, whether you're a good actor, you, or a bad actor. He's just trying to destroy it. All right? And that's the problem, because all of this is disrupted to incumbents. And he is a Goldman Sachs guy. He's doing the bidding, guys, here, Ron Hammond of the blockchain association said, strictly from a political perspective, this is a pretty bold move by the SEC, close to the election and a month out from the chair, testifying in front of the House and Senate. So he's going to be testifying soon. A reminder, both the DNC and donald Trump have used nfts this cycle. And, folks, this news of this wealth notice comes a day after Donald Trump, you know, launched a, some new nfts called trump cards and their bitcoin ordinals, of course. So is this a bit political? I think so. And, you know, could gary be gearing up to go after Donald Trump next? It's possible. I don't think he's going to win that, and that's probably a bad move. But if he's once again the strings are being pulled by Elizabeth Warren and her anti crypto army. Um, you know, Gary's just going to do the bidding because he wants that treasury job. So this is interesting. And look, even Anthony Scaramucci weighed in saying Gensler wants Harris to lose the election. So all the talk we've been hearing from Kamala Harris's camp, oh, she's going to support crypto and so forth, this is what we get. And I tweeted out today at Kamala Harris and so forth, I said, if she and Biden does not stop this nonsense because they're in power, they have control over Elizabeth Warren and Gary Ganser, then we as the industry are not going to believe one single word from her because it's all full of lies. Because the actual proof of what's happening under Democrat control is Gary Gintzer's attacking this industry. And we have not heard one word out of Harris. So it's pretty pathetic what's happening. And look, I give kudos to the Democrats who have supported crypto, who helped pass the fit 21 bill of the House, who helped to repeal Saab, one to one in the House and Senate, um, those who have organized crypto for Harris. But until action is taken, this is all a dog and pony show from Kamala Harris's camp. And Donald Trump is leading in this category. There are other issues, obviously, in this election, but we're just talking about crypto. Kamala Harris is, is losing this issue, and she's going to lose a lot of money and she's going to lose a lot of seats for a lot of the Democrats because we've seen so far, guys, that many of the anti crypto people, those who have aligned with Elizabeth Warren have lost on super Tuesday, have been losing in the primaries. And there's a war chest of $200 million raised by the crypto industry to support pro crypto candidates, whether they're Republicans or Democrats. But we know they are vastly Republicans. So Harris, Kamala Harris is playing a dangerous game here with this clown Gary Ganser. Now, Eleanor territory is reporting that Commissioner Hester purse says she partly blames herself on how the commission has interpreted the Howie test when it comes to crypto. Here's a quote. I blame myself in part for that. Something I could have done differently. Differently is help bring more legal clarity. It's a cautionary tale for other regulators. I think we've got a lot of work to do, both at the SEC and in the industry. So this was from a Twitter spaces, but I don't think she's right here. I think she did her part. She put out a lot of recommendations for crypto regulations, clarity. She's been working with the industry. Obviously, she can't say that Gary Ganzer, this whole thing has been political, controlled by Elizabeth Warren. That's something she can't say, but we know it's true. Elizabeth Warren meeting with Gary, sending him questions and answers ahead of hearing. She put together this whole campaign slogan, the anti crypto army. She got Sherrod Brown, Brad Sherman. You see Brad Sherman meeting with Gary Ganzer, taking photos with him. Come on. Right. We know the deal. Now, like I said, she can't say that, obviously, because she's working at the SEC. But we know the deal, and we got to keep fighting, folks. And like I've been saying, disruptive technology always wins. So no matter the roadblocks and all these things that Gary tries to throw at us, we're going to win. And crypto regulations have made it through the House. It needs to go through the Senate. And we got to put pressure on the Senate to do this. Recently, we heard from Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer that he wants to get this done, so regulations are on the way. It's not happening as fast as we want. The election is coming up. And I think that if Donald Trump wins, we know Gary's out, and he's very pro crypto. DOnALd TRUMp and if Harris wins, there's talks that she might kick out Gary as well and bring someone in new. We don't know, you know, but there is a chance there. But right now, the Democrats and Harris are playing with fire by having this clown, Gary Gantz and Elizabeth Warren continue to poison the well here. Now we got big news that Donald Trump and Trump DeFi Platform WorldLibertyFi his team have launched their DeFi platform here. Eric Trump, Donald Trump's son, tweeted out, excited to announce the launch of world Liberty fi, a new era of finances here. And he says, hashtag crypto, hashtag DeFi. This is interesting, and here's what the reports are about this. Mario Nafal says Trump is reportedly backing a new crypto finance initiative being launched by his sons, Eric and Donald Trump Junior. Called World Liberty fi, the project aims to put the power of finance back in the hands of the people and challenge crooked banks and financial institutions that Eric Trump claims are denying banking services to over half the country. Few details are known about world Liberty fi, specific features or launch plans, but Trump sons have framed it as part of a broader revolution in decentralized finance to modernize an unfair and antiquated system. The families warning the public to be wary of any scams using similar names, stating all official information will come directly from their verified accounts. So we have to wait to see what this is. I'm going to test it out and see if it's legit. I'm not claiming it's legit. I'm not saying you should go use it. I need more details. But this is big from an adoption standpoint, even if you hate Donald Trump, right? I'm not here to tell you who to vote for, I'm just delivering the news. But this is big. Crypto is getting mainstream adoption. It's become ubiquitous, as I've been saying. It's appearing in trad five politics, pop culture, society and so forth. So very bullish news now. Guys, quick word from our sponsor. And that is Vechain. Vechain is one of the top enterprise blockchains out there. Many brands and companies are using Vechain to build web three and decentralized app ecosystems. I've been a vet token holder for years. I'm very bullish on this project. Some of the great features of the Vechain blockchain includes it is secure, affordable, scalable, fast and sustainable. Some of the brands working with Vechain includes BMW, Givenchy, PwC, one of the top four accounting firms, and many other big brands. Guys, so check out Vechain. Go to vechain.org. comma link will be in the description. All right, guys, moving ahead, we got news that Crypto VC $70 Million fund crypto VC Lemnis cap, if I'm saying that right, raises $70 million for their third fund. I've been sharing these type of news items with you to show you the capital that's coming into this market. People are very bullish on this asset class and technology, and we're still relatively early and many are raising billions of dollars and they're doing first fund, second fund, third fund. It's pretty incredible. So this is Lemon Cap's third and largest fund to date, state founder and managing partner Roderick van der Graf told the block. So the fund is anchored by accolade Partners, a us based fund of funds, Lemnis Cap said Wednesday. Other limited partners of the fund include undisclosed high net worth individuals and founders of Lemnist caps portfolio companies. And folks, we've seen that these funds are not only investing in the infrastructure companies like the wallet services, the exchanges and all that, but they're investing in the tokens as well. So that's why it's important to follow what these hedge funds and VC's are doing because if they're putting liquidity into certain tokens, they could do pretty well. That's not the only factor, obviously, but it's important to watch these things. And like, I like to pay attention to what a 16 z is doing because they're the biggest. They've raised incredible amounts of capital, billions of dollars. And that's one of the ways that I look for coins that could potentially do well. So this is very bullish news. Now, we got news here. Crypto game Pirate Nation news There. Farmville co creators crypto game Pirate Nation adds second chain to serve future growth. Now, many of you may recall Farmville is a very popular game on Facebook years ago. And, you know, you want to pay attention to what these guys are doing because they're now going into web three. So you're going to see a lot of web two tech developers and entrepreneurs move to web three. Guys, the transition is happening not as fast as I would like, but, you know, walk, run. So they built a game. It's a web three game called Pirate Nation, and it's created by the developer. Proof of Play announced it's adding a second chain after the first apparently reach maximum capacity. Last year, proof of Play, which was co founded by Farmville co creator Amit Mahajan, raised $33 million in a seed round, which included the participation of investors like a 16 Z crypto, Green Oaks and naval riva Khan. So some big players there, a 16 Z naval, uh, he's a billionaire, by the way. So Pirate Nation has become so popular that it has maxed out the capacity of the title's first network, called Apex, built on arbitrum l three chain. Now, proof of play is adding a second chain, dubbed Boss chain. The company said, here's a quote. To continue scaling the game and accommodate the growing number of users and transactions, proof of play is launching additional chains, starting with boss chain. So there is apparently a token, and looks like it was launched on Coinbase. So this is part of the game five, uh, segment of all coins that could do well. So, like, this is one I want to look at because there's some big vc's behind. Now, once again, that's not the only reason I will invest in it. I'm looking at the tokenomics, I'm looking at the chart analysis, I'm looking at the roadmap. I'm looking at are they getting adoption and partnerships with traditional gaming platforms and, and many other factors. Right. But I'm just sharing my thought process. So it's, uh, helpful for some of you who are new to crypto investing and so forth. Obviously every investment carries a risk and you got to do your own research. Not because I'm reporting on something that means you just jump into it blindly. Don't. Please don't do that. Go and do your research. Spend a few hours researching what the hell is this doing? You know? Is it legit? What's what's the number of active users playing the game? Has it been growing significantly? You guys get what I'm saying? So this is very bullish, and I personally don't hold any gamefi tokens, but this is one I may look into given who's behind it, Farmville and all the VC's that are backing it. So guys, that's the news. Let me know what you think, especially about the news of the SEC going after NFTs and OpenSea. And guys, don't forget to sign up for my free email newsletter. It's available on Substack. It's 100% free, so please sign up there. Also, be sure to grab a copy of my book rethinking crypto. It's available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble in paperback and digital, and buy a copy to support the podcast. Grab a few copies for your friends and family. It can make a great gift if they want to learn about crypto. It includes investment tips and so forth. And if you bought a copy ready, please leave a rating and review on Amazon. It would really help me out. It'll help out my rankings. Thank you so much. I appreciate you all and I'll talk to you all later.