Matt Levine’s Money Stuff: Terra Is Usually a Security

Programming note: Money Stuff will be off tomorrow, back on Monday.

When are tokens securities?

We have talked a few times recently about the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s lawsuit against Ripple Labs Inc. Ripple is a company that is building a blockchain ecosystem; it created and sold a bunch of crypto tokens called XRP to fund that development. The SEC argued that this was a securities offering — Ripple sold quasi-stock in its project, for money, to build that project — while Ripple argued that it wasn’t. Last month, a federal judge in New York issued a split decision:

1. XRP ...