SEC filing: Intangible Labs, the company behind a “stablecoin” project called Basecoin, has raised $125M via a Simple Agreement for Future Tokens (SAFT) sale
Context & Ripple Effects
Intangible Labs' $125M SAFT sale is one of the largest entries in a financing pattern that began with Filecoin's $52M accredited-investor token pre-sale: sell future tokens to VCs before any network exists, keeping retail out of the securities question. The buyers here include Bain Capital, GV, and a16z.
The arc closes fast: eight months after this filing, the same project — by then renamed Basis — confirmed it was shutting down and returning its $133M because the algorithmic-stablecoin design could not be reconciled with US securities law, making this filing the high-water mark of the SAFT era.
First-order effects
- Bain Capital, GV, and a16z are locked into a token they cannot legally distribute in the US, and within months of this filing the project's shutdown and full $133M return of capital converts their upside bet into a refund.
- Intangible Labs gets runway to pursue the design abroad or restructure, but the SAFT itself offers no shelter once regulators classify the base asset as a security.
Second-order effects
- Later stablecoin builders abandon the unregistered-SAFT route entirely: Figure files with US regulators for approval to issue an interest-bearing stablecoin (its 2024 filing), trading speed for legal standing.
- Capital migrates from token-design bets to infrastructure plays, as with Stable's $28M seed for a dedicated stablecoin Layer 1 — the money chases rails rather than monetary experiments.
Third-order effects
- Algorithmic, central-bank-style stablecoins are effectively foreclosed in the US market, pushing the sector toward fully reserved or regulator-approved issuance as the only viable structure.
- The SAFT as a fundraising instrument loses credibility for anything touching payments or currency, concentrating stablecoin development among teams willing to negotiate with regulators from day one.
The trend: Stablecoin projects have shifted from unregistered SAFT-funded token designs to regulator-negotiated issuance and dedicated infrastructure, with securities classification acting as the selection filter.