The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has dropped its investigation into Web3 gaming platform Immutable and will not file enforcement charges, according to a Tuesday announcement from the company.
Immutable, an Australian company, disclosed that it had received a Wells notice — essentially an official heads-up from the SEC that it intends to file an enforcement action against the recipient — in November. At the time, the firm speculated that the SEC’s investigation was tied to its listing and private sales of its native IMX token back in 2021.
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“We are pleased the SEC has concluded its inquiry,” said Robbie Ferguson, Immutable’s co-founder and president, in a statement. “This marks a significant milestone for the crypto
industry and gaming as we advance towards a future with regulatory clarity.”
Ferguson added that the firm was “thrilled” at the developing regulatory clarity coming from the U.S. government, and said that “with a clear regulatory framework, we plan to accelerate our ambitions to bring digital ownership to the 3.1 billion gamers in the world.”
The SEC declined to comment, telling CoinDesk that the agency “does not comment on the existence or nonexistence of a possible investigation.”
The SEC’s decision to end its investigation into Immutable is the latest in a string of closed probes and dropped litigation as the agency continues its full-scale retreat from former Chair Gary Gensler’s so-called “regulation by enforcement” approach to the crypto industry. Under the leadership of Acting Chair Mark Uyeda, the SEC has signaled a total overhaul in its crypto regulation strategy, setting up a Crypto Task Force spearheaded by crypto-friendly Commissioner Hester Peirce and starting a series of roundtable discussions with industry players.
In the less-than-three-month span since U.S. President Donald Trump took office — catalyzing a regulatory sea change for the crypto industry — the SEC’s investigations into crypto exchange Gemini, trading platform Robinhood, non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea, NFT company Yuga Labs, and now, Immutable, have all been dropped, with no enforcement charges filed. The agency’s litigation against crypto companies including Kraken, Coinbase, ConsenSys, Ripple andCumberland DRW have also been dropped. Still more litigation, including the SEC’s cases against Tron and Binance, have been paused.
However, not everyone who received a Wells notice is off the SEC’s hook yet. Crypto issuer Unicoin received a Wells notice last year informing the firm that the SEC planned to bring charges alleging violations related to fraud, deceptive practices and the offer and sale of unregistered securities.
A spokesperson for Unicoin told CoinDesk that the firm “remains in the final stages of the SEC review process.”
“As of now, we have not received any new updates or formal feedback from the SEC regarding our registration,” the spokesperson added. “We are fully committed to compliance and transparency, and we continue to work toward securing the necessary approvals for our planned offerings.”
Crypto.com also received a Wells notice from the SEC last year, after which it sued the agency and then-Chair Gensler, accusing the regulator of “unlawfully expanding its jurisdiction.” The suit was later dropped. Crypto.com has not publicly commented on the status of the SEC’s investigation, and did not respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment.
