#Mango Markets agree to destroy tokens #MNGO in agreement with SEC

Mango DAO, Mango Labs and Blockworks Foundation agreed to settle charges with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) settled charges against Mango DAO, Mango Labs LLC and Blockworks Foundation alleging that the MNGO token was an unregistered security and that the latter entities offered unregistered brokerage services.

The entities will destroy their MNGO tokens and ask cryptocurrency exchanges to stop trading them, in addition to paying a total of $700,000 as part of the settlement, which is still subject to court approval, the SEC announced Friday in a press release.

The deal comes just over a month after Mango DAO held an open vote on whether to adopt the settlement offer proposal. The DAO also voted on a settlement proposal with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) earlier this week, which was unanimously approved.

It’s unclear what the future of the project will look like without the token.

The SEC press release noted that Mango DAO and Blockworks Foundation (unrelated to the news and events business) sold $70 million worth of MNGO tokens starting in August 2021.

In a statement, acting head of the SEC’s Cryptography and Cybernetics Unit Jorge Tenreiro said that any entity that offers “securities brokerage functions” must register or otherwise be exempt from registration with the SEC.

"Since the beginning of our cryptocurrency monitoring program, our view has been that the 'DAO' label does not change the reality of who is behind a project, what activities they engage in, or whether their activities should be recorded. Engaging in securities intermediation with the help of automated or open-source software also does not change the nature of those activities."