The SEC’s charges were against Mango DAO and a Panama entity, Blockworks Foundation, for “engaging in the unregistered offer and sale of crypto assets” of governance tokens on the Mango Markets platform. The agency also said it settled charges against Blockworks Foundation and Mango Labs LLC for acting as a broker without being registered.
All three — Mango Labs, Mango DAO and Blockworks Foundation — agreed to settle the charges and pay a total of $700,000 in penalties. The three also agreed to destroy their MNGO tokens.
“Since the inception of our crypto enforcement program, our view has been that the label ‘DAO’ does not change the reality of who is behind a project, what activities they engage in, or whether their activities need to be registered. Nor does engaging in intermediation of securities with the aid of automated or open source software change the nature of such activities,” said Jorge G. Tenreiro, acting chief of the Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit, said in a statement on Friday.