Terra lawsuit a ‘roadmap’ to attack other stablecoins: Delphi Labs

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC's) lawsuit against Terraform Labs and its co-founder Do Kwon could be seen as an SEC “roadmap” to taking down other stablecoins, according to a lawyer.

Gabriel Shapiro, general counsel at investment firm Delphi Labs, explained to his 33,800 Twitter followers on Feb. 16 that the SEC’s arguments in its complaint against Kwon and Terraform were “more thorough than usual.”

Shapiro’s analysis follows the SEC’s Feb. 16 lawsuit against Kwon and Terraform alleging they “orchestrat[ed] a multi-billion dollar crypto asset securities fraud involving an algorithmic stablecoin and other crypto asset securities.”

Shapiro suggested the case could serve as a “roadmap” for how the regulator may sue other stablecoin issuers in the future. He acknowledged the SEC made the case that Terra’s algorithmic stablecoin, TerraClassicUSD (USTC), constitutes a security:

“[The SEC] will allege that integration, promotion, marketing, commercial deals etc building the stablecoin ecosystems are ‘efforts of others’ that are ‘reasonably expected’ and can lead to profits in connection with the stables.”

He pointed out the SEC applied the four prongs of the Howey Test to argue that USTC, Terra Luna Classic (LUNC) — renamed from Terra (LUNA) — and Wrapped LUNA (wLUNA) all constituted securities under U.S. securities laws.

Delphi Labs General Counsel Gabriel Shapiro’s take on the SEC’s lawsuit against Terraform Labs and its CEO Do Kwon. Source:Twitter.

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The SEC also argued that Terraform Labs breached U.S. securities laws by launching the Mirror Protocol, which allowed its users to create what Terraform called an “mAsset,” a crypto version of an asset that “mirrors” the price behavior of other assets such as stocks.

The regulator claimed Terraform Labs committed this securities-based swap through the MIR token — which Shapiro believes to be a “first” of all the cryptocurrency-related lawsuits filed by the SEC.

Shapiro noted the SEC’s claim that wLUNA constituted a “receipt” for a security was another “first.”

Delphi Labs General Counsel Gabriel Shapiro’s analysis on the SEC’s lawsuit filing against Terraform Labs and its CEO Do Kwon. Source:Twitter.

Ryan Sean Adams, the host of the crypto-oriented podcast Bankless, made a similar argument to his 221,300 Twitter followers on Feb. 16, noting that a legal victory against Terraform Labs would make it easier to go after other stablecoin issuers.

The Terra-linked tokens infamously crashed in May, 2022, which was in part triggered when USTC lost its peg to the U.S. dollar. As LUNC was closely linked to USTC, its price fell by virtually 100% and triggered a wider downturn in the crypto markets, wiping out approximately $40 billion from the crypto markets.