The source said that the parent company of "boring ape" was investigated by the US Securities Regulatory Commission: NFT cannot be issued at will.

Yuga Labs, the parent company of the NFT avatar collection project "Bored Ape Yacht Club"(BAYC), is under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on whether NFT should be considered unregistered securities, according to people familiar with the matter.

The SEC is investigating whether certain NFTs issued by Yuga Labs are more stock-like and should be subject to the same disclosure rules, people familiar with the matter said. The SEC is also investigating the distribution of Ethereum-based ApeCoin tokens launched by Yuga Labs this year.

Yuga Labs has not been charged with any wrongdoing, and opening an investigation does not mean the SEC will prosecute it. Yuga Labs did not respond to requests for comment. The SEC declined to comment.

Bored Ape Yacht Club, which had more than $1 billion in sales on OpenSea in January, is one of the most popular NFT collectibles held by celebrities such as Jimmy Fallon, Hilton Hotel heir Paris Hilton and rapper Eminem.

Earlier this year, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler said he would focus on cryptocurrency issues to ensure that platforms, stablecoins, and tokens comply with the law.

Gensler also said in April: "In fact, most cryptocurrency tokens involve a group of entrepreneurs who raise money from the public in the hope of making a profit. This is a typical sign of investment contracts or securities in our jurisdiction. Some of them (probably only a few) are like digital gold, they may not be securities, and fewer can circulate like fiat money. When a new technology comes along, our existing laws cannot easily lose their effectiveness. "

In recent years, the SEC has investigated dozens of cases in which digital asset companies failed to register products for issuance. In February, BlockFi paid a $50 million fine and stopped selling unregistered products.