Animoca Brands looking for growth outside the US after SEC’s security labelling

Amidst the lawsuits against Binance and Coinbase, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) labeled The Sandbox’s token SAND as an “unregistered security.” In response to this, Animoca Brands, the owner of The Sandbox, has decided to seek growth outside of the United States.

The Hong Kong-based company has several subsidiaries, including The Sandbox. The SEC labeled SAND, The Sandbox token, as a security. Along with SAND, a dozen other tokens, like Solana’s SOL, and Polygon’s MATIC are all now considered securities by SEC.

“Animoca Brands is not focused on a single territory but operates globally. The SEC focuses on the US, so that should not have an impact on Animoca Brands in broader markets where Sand is widely available and accepted, including in more progressive jurisdictions like Hong Kong and Japan,” said Yat Siu, the co-founder and chairman of Animoca Brands in an interview in the South China Morning Post.

Siu also mentioned that Animoca Brands has already started taking steps toward developing in other countries due to the “blockchain-hostile” environment in the United States.

In a previous interview, Sebastien Borget, the COO and co-founder of The Sandbox, mentioned that much of the audience comes from Asia and EMEA regions. 

“The metaverse is a global phenomenon, and we’re building a new digital nation where all participants are citizens represented by their avatars,” Borget said.

He pointed out that Asia (including Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, and Thailand) currently accounts for 40% of The Sandbox’s audience. Meanwhile, the US accounts for 25%, which is lesser compared to Asia and EMEA.