Top-Funded Stablecoin Basis Shuts Down Due to SEC “Regulatory Constraints”

In a shocking move, Basis, the well-funded stablecoin formerly known as Basecoin, is closing its doors while returning raised capital to any investors.

As revealed via a blog post from CEO Nader Al-Naji, the team claims that “having to apply US securities regulation to the system” had a severely detrimental effect on their chances of launching the project.

Stable No More

The stablecoin set out to be “resistant to hyperinflation, free from centralized control, and more stable and robust than the monetary systems that came before it.” Basis was a good step towards doing so. Essentially, the project ensured stability by incentivizing investors to buy and sell the asset based on demand via bonds and shares. When demand is high, more coins will be created to match it. As demand lowers, assets would be repurchased.

Basis raised $133 million in one round of investing after publishing its white paper. However, when looking at regulatory policies, the team realized they would not be able to launch their project in its current state. The capital was raised from spaces such as Google Ventures, Bain Capital, and Andreessen Horowitz.

First off, Basis lawyers realized that while their main token would be free from securities status, the bond and share assets would not. Because of this, bond and share tokens would be up against transfer restrictions set by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Because of this, Intangible Labs, the team behind Basis, would have to limit tokens only to accredited investors for the first year. That limiting would lead to reduced liquidity alongside the project losing its censorship resistance. Also, each token’s year starts upon launch. This means the team could never entirely move from a whitelisted system.

Fewer investors participating on the Basis blockchain means it will be less stable and that others may not want to jump on. These restrictions would hurt the Basis ecosystem and prevent it from growing.

“We met with the SEC to clarify a lot of our thinking,” said Al Naji in an interview with Forbes. “The SEC generally avoids saying that something will definitely be one way or the other. But from that meeting we got the impression that we would not be able to avoid securities classification.”

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A Long Time Coming

This isn’t the first forced change either. Basis launched in New York but had to move to New Jersey to avoid the state’s complicated BitLicense criteria.

Essentially, Basis is in trouble because it features a lack of intrinsic utility. Instead, it’s meant purely as a replacement for fiat currency. “Fundamentally, that lack of utility puts us on a different ground than ethereum or filecoin,” says Al Naji. “That puts us at a disadvantage in the existing regulatory framework.”

Al Naji ends the Forbes interview with some advice for fellow crypto startups. He says those looking to build stablecoins should found companies outside the United States. They shouldn’t take money from U.S. investors, and teams should be sure their company has some sort of “consumable utility.” Finally, he says that while current stablecoins are still tied to fiat currencies, they do provide features such as “speed and borderlessness,” and because of this, they “will actually do very well. But it’s a disappointment that we can’t offer an alternative that doesn’t rely on trusting a centralized authority,” Al Naji concludes.

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