SEC file charges against Bittrex, former CEO for operating without license
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has indicted cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex and its co-founder Bill Shihara for failing to register as a national stock exchange.
The SEC noted that the exchange’s foreign affiliate, Bittrex Global GmbH, was also charged because it has a single shared order book with the US-based company.
In a statement on April 17, financial regulators allege that Bittrex has earned more than $1.3 billion from U.S. investors while providing services as a broker, exchange and clearing house without being registered with regulators. Did.
According to the SEC, Bittrex and Shihara have worked with cryptocurrency issuers to remove “controversial statements” that could cause regulators to investigate cryptocurrencies as security products.
“Bittrex and Shihara have instructed issuer applicants to remove statements related to ‘price predictions’.[s]”, “return expectations”, and other “investment-related terms”.
The SEC complaint further alleges that Bittrex “should have been registered as a clearing house because it acted as an intermediary to make payments and deliveries and maintain custody of customer assets when matching sell and buy orders.”
SEC Chairman Gary Gensler Said:
“Bittrex and the issuers it worked with were aware of the rules that applied to them, but the issuer petitions to ‘scrub’ informational materials that indicate that certain crypto assets are securities.” In addition, Bittrex is registered as an exchange, broker-dealer and clearing house and complies with U.S. securities laws as claimed. I didn’t. The cosmetic changes did not change the offerings and the underlying economic reality of Bittrex’s actions. “
Meanwhile, March 31st statement Bittrex has indicated it will suspend operations in the U.S. by April 30. The crypto firm blamed the country’s “continued regulatory uncertainty” for the decision. . “
Since 2020, the exchange’s trading volume has fallen from nearly $500 million to $12 million, according to Kaiko. data.
Bittrex is the second cryptocurrency exchange to be prosecuted by financial regulators in the past three weeks. The SEC recently stepped up its regulatory scrutiny of the crypto industry, indicting crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun and several others.
The SEC post-file indictment against Bittrex, a former CEO operating without permission, first appeared on CryptoSlate.
