Bitcoin News and Finance
Crypto Exchange Bittrex Settles With SEC — Agrees to Pay $24 Million Skip to main content

Crypto Exchange Bittrex Settles With SEC — Agrees to Pay $24 Million

Crypto Exchange Bittrex Settles With SEC — Agrees to Pay $24 Million

Cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex has agreed to settle charges with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Bittrex and Bittrex Global agreed to pay $24 million. The SEC’s director of enforcement alleged that for years, Bittrex worked with token issuers to “scrub” their online statements “to evade the federal securities laws.”

Bittrex Settles With SEC

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced Thursday that crypto trading platform Bittrex Inc., its co-founder and former CEO William Shihara, and Bittrex’s foreign entity Bittrex Global GmbH have reached a settlement with the regulator. The SEC charged Bittrex entities and Shihara in April.

Specifically, the SEC explained that Bittrex and Shihara “agreed to settle charges that they operated an unregistered national securities exchange, broker, and clearing agency.” Meanwhile, Bittrex Global “agreed to settle charges that it failed to register as a national securities exchange.”

The securities watchdog stated that as part of the settlement, subject to court approval, the defendants consented to be permanently enjoined from violating the securities laws. Moreover, the SEC detailed:

Bittrex and Bittrex Global agreed to pay, on a joint and several basis, disgorgement of $14.4 million, prejudgment interest of $4 million, and a civil penalty of $5.6 million, for a total monetary payment of $24 million.

Gurbir S. Grewal, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, commented: “For years, Bittrex worked with token issuers to ‘scrub’ their online statements of any indicia that they were investment contracts — all in an effort to evade the federal securities laws. They failed.”

The SEC has taken several enforcement actions against major crypto firms this year, including and Coinbase (Nasdaq: COIN). The Nasdaq-listed crypto exchange Coinbase, which attempted to have the charges against it dismissed last week, claimed that the SEC “overstepped” its statutory authority. The regulator reportedly asked Coinbase to delist all crypto tokens except bitcoin in order to comply with securities laws. SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, who has been slammed for his enforcement-centric approach to regulating the crypto industry, believes that all crypto tokens except bitcoin are securities. He also said that crypto is a highly speculative field that is rife with fraud.

The SEC has also revealed its plan to appeal the Ripple decision made by District Judge Analisa Torres regarding XRP. The securities watchdog believes that some parts of the Ripple ruling are “wrongly decided,” according to Gensler.

What do you think about Bittrex settling charges with the SEC? Let us know in the comments section below.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Custodial Lightning Network Service Attack Discovered by LN ‘Newbie’ — Hacker Strikes 6 LN Custodians

On September 18, a Redditor posted to the r/bitcoin forum and explained how he discovered a way to “attack [the] lightning Network’s custodial services.” The Reddit account dubbed “Reckless Satoshi” wanted to figure out if a “discrepancy between real routing fees and service’s transaction fee can be exploited for a profit.” The researcher disclosed that he wanted to see how large the damage could be and said “it is bad.” 6 Lightning Network Custodial Services Attacked, Researcher Discloses Findings to Offenders Prior to Public Disclosure A Redditor called Reckless Satoshi published a disclosure post on r/bitcoin this past Saturday and disclosed how he had found a vulnerability with routing fees and some of the Lightning Network’s custodial services. The research attack was done in good faith and after it was complete he disclosed the bugs to the offending services before publishing his findings. Reckless Satoshi used the Lightning Network (LN) attack on six different services incl
Post a Comment
Read more

Axie Infinity Down 40% Since Last Week’s Price High, Protocol Revenue Outshines Competitors

Last week, the game token leveraged within the Axie Infinity gaming universe skyrocketed to all-time highs, while other crypto markets remained extremely lackluster. During the last seven days, Axie Infinity’s platform token has dropped significantly in value shedding more than 12%. Meanwhile, the game platform’s smooth love potion token has slid over 8% over the last 24 hours. Axie Infinity Down More Than 40% Since All-Time High Not too long ago, the axie infinity (AXS) token was a topical conversation because it reached an all-time high on July 15. At the time, AXS managed to capture $28.93 per unit and since then it has shed 12.8% during the last seven days. The axie infinity (AXS) token is used within the blockchain-based game that involves battles between token-based creatures called “Axies.” AXS is used for the game’s governance system as well as other actions within the game. At the time of writing axie infinity (AXS) is exchanging hands for $16.70 per coin. AXS/USD on Ju
Post a Comment
Read more

Play-to-Earn Game From Polker (PKR) Exchange Listing – Endorsed by Akon

The Play-to-Earn NFT based Polker.Game ‘s native token $PKR has been officially listed on the popular centralized exchange BitMart. Polker.game has been in the spotlight recently as Akon, the American R&B superstar and record producer gave his official endorsement of polker stating that the “game is revolutionary” and that Polker is “hands down.. the best play to earn, NFT game in the space.”. With the BitMart listing and celebrity endorsement from Akon, Polker is perfectly positioned to become a major player in the Play-to-Earn league. Watch Akon’s Video Here What is Play-to-Earn? Although not a new concept, play-to-earn has become a trending term due to the popularity of the NFT game AXIE infinity. In the past, previous play-to-earn games have also achieved success – however, thanks to the huge amount of development in the blockchain space in recent years the gaming experience is now massively improved. Play-to-Earn games are essentially free to play and open to anyone and
Post a Comment
Read more

China to Crack Down on Copyright Infringement Through NFTs

Authorities in China are going after creators of digital collectibles based on other people’s works of art, the use of which was not authorized. The government offensive is part of a campaign to combat online copyright infringement and piracy with the participation of several departments. Regulators in China Move to Strengthen Copyright Supervision of Online Platforms The National Copyright Administration of China (NCAC) has recently launched a campaign against copyright infringement and piracy on the internet, together with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, and the State Internet Information Office of the People’s Republic. A major objective of the initiative is to improve copyright supervision of online businesses by investigating cases involving the sale and distribution of infringing products on short video, live broadcast and e-commerce platforms, and promptly dealing with infringing content, the agency announced in a press r
Post a Comment
Read more
Blogarama - Blog Directory