TKO: Mayweather-Backed ICO Is a Security, US Judge Says

An initial coin offering (ICO) token promoted by boxing legend Floyd Mayweather is a security, a US district court judge has said.

Magistrate Judge Andrea Simonton made this determination in a report related to a class action lawsuit against the operators of Centra Tech, a cryptocurrency startup whose $32 million ICO was shut down by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Investors are suing Centra, whose token sale was promoted on social media by Floyd Mayweather, for selling unregistered securities, which is a crime under federal law.

This aspect of the case was not exactly in dispute, as the defendants have thus far in the case conceded that point (while reserving the right to challenge that classification in the future), instead arguing that the plaintiff lacks standing to bring the claim.

Nevertheless, writing in a report for the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Florida, Judge Simonton stated that Centra’s CTR token should be classified as a security according to the “Howey Test,” a rubric that in the U.S. has for decades been used to assess whether a particular asset is an “investment contract.”