It will be interesting to see how the SEC makes the case that these stable coins are securities when their whole purpose should make them fail the "expectation of profit" prong of the Howey test.
well technically, Paxos can profit because they can invest in 'Cash equivelents". Also at the stablecoin level, there is an expectation to profit through money lending, transaction fees, liquidity pools, reserve capital to short against an asset, and other lending practices. Even though the coin isn't going to 'Appreciate'.
But all those profitable activities aren't being proposed or offered by the issuer, and require additional affirmative actions and effort by the holder, taking on additional risk and interactions with third party entities. Just because tools can be used for profitable ends doesn't make tools themselves security offerings.
what if you shorted the coin? or if you bought and sold on the minute differences? Even though it's 'Pegged", it never equals 1-1 for USD. For instance, jump capital and plenty of other corps made a killing on the depegging of terra.