- LBRY is to wind up operations following the issuing of a final judgment in its case against the SEC
- The agency sued LBRY in 2021 and won its case in 2022, hitting LBRY with a $22 million fine
- Despite this being reduced in May, LBRY has still announced it will close
Decentralized media platform LBRY has announced that it is to wind down following the issuance of a final judgment in its case against the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The platform was accused of selling unregistered securities in the form of LBC tokens in 2021 and decided to fight the case, only to lose last year. While it was issued with a fine instead of a winding-up order, the financial burden has proved too much and LBRY has revealed that it is to shut down operations throughout the year, hoping to hand it over to the community.
Seven-year Stay Comes to an End
In March 2021 the SEC alleged that, starting in 2016, LBRY “offered and sold millions of dollars’ worth of unregistered securities to investors” through its LBC token system, with LBRY claiming that the proceeds were going to be used to “fund its business and build its project”. However, the SEC argued that LBC tokens were “offered and sold as investment contracts and, therefore, securities”, with LBC token buyers expecting “a return on their investment based on the entrepreneurial or managerial efforts of LBRY.”
LBRY fought back but ultimately lost in November last year, with the judge issuing a $22 million fine, which was reduced to just $111,000 in May given LBRY’s parlous financial position. This has still proved too much for LBRY to bear, however, and yesterday it announced that its seven-year stay in the crypto world is coming to an end:
The LBRY network has:
– 30,000,000 pieces of content
– 1,700,000 on-chain identities
– Famous content creators
– Apps used by millions each month
– Quality, open-source code
– The clearest regulatory standing of any token other than BTC and ETHMaybe the best is yet to come?🚀
— LBRY 🚀 (@LBRYcom) July 11, 2023
Many respondents praised LBRY for trying to stand up to the SEC, although few respondents came forward to offer suggestions for how to take LBRY’s content library forward on another platform.
It seems then that LBRY will be another notch for the SEC to add to its bedpost as it sets about burning the crypto forest to the ground tree by tree.
