The SEC Chair Gary Gensler says crypto market needs more regulatory compliance. The post Regulatory Crackdown on Crypto Exchanges Increases as SEC Charges Bittrex appeared first on Tokenist.
Bittrex Cooperated with Crypto Issuers to Delete Statements that Could Lead to an Investigation, SEC Alleges
The SEC filed charged crypto exchange Bittrex and its co-founder William Shihara “for operating an unregistered national securities exchange, broker, and clearing agency,” the government agency said in a press release on Monday. Further, the SEC also took legal action against the exchange’s foreign affiliate Bittrex Global.
In its lawsuit, the SEC alleges that since at least 2014, Bittrex has operated a platform that allowed clients to trade crypto assets that the agency says were offered and sold as securities. Further, the agency alleges that the crypto exchange bagged a minimum of $1.3 billion in revenues from investor transaction fees between 2017 and 2022. Bittrex profited from those fees while offering brokerage and exchange services without previously registering any of those with the SEC, the regulator states.
Moreover, the lawsuit accused Bittrex and former CEO Shihara of collaborating with crypto issuers to delete “problematic statements” that Shihara thought would lead to the SEC opening an investigation.
“For example, in an effort to avoid regulatory scrutiny, before Bittrex would make an asset available on its platform, Bittrex and Shihara instructed issuer-applicants to delete statements related to “price prediction[s],” “expectation of profit,” and other “investment related terms.”“
– the SEC wrote in the press release.
Crypto Markers Lack Regulatory Compliance, not Regulatory Clarity, Says SEC Chair
Further in the press release, the SEC Chair Gary Gensler said the agency’s action against Bittrex highlights that crypto markets lack regulatory compliance rather than regulatory clarity. Gensler added that Bittrex and related issuers were familiar with the regulators “but went to great lengths to evade them.”
Do you think the SEC’s recent crackdown on crypto exchanges is needed to better regulate the crypto sector? Let us know in the comments below.