The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which has been targeting the cryptocurrency market for a long time, is preparing for new investigations targeting the cryptocurrency industry.
According to DL News, the SEC is investigating cryptocurrency venture capital companies. Accordingly, the SEC alleges crypto venture capital firms for selling unregistered securities.
Speaking on the Unchained podcast, BlockTower Capital CIO Ari Paul said the SEC is investigating these companies for potentially acting as unregistered securities dealers.
Stating that these investigations are a sign that the SEC, under the management of Chairman Gary Gensler, is increasing its pressure on the digital asset industry, Ari Paul said that the SEC's actions are justified, and that some VCs are acting as securities dealers by making agreements with crypto projects before their tokens are publicly traded. He claimed.
The famous name explained how some VCs violated securities laws. According to Paul, before a cryptocurrency project launches a token, his team often makes deals with market makers or venture firms. In these deals, the crypto project promises to sell VC tokens at a large discount from the price they expect them to trade in the future. In return, the VC is expected to promote the token.
“Looking at these agreements between cryptocurrency projects and crypto VCs, the VCs act like a securities dealer.
And from an ethical standpoint, they very clearly act as a pump-and-dump device.”
The SEC, headed by the harsh and repressive Gary Gensler, filed lawsuits against Coinbase, Kraken, and Binance, alleging that they illegally offered unregistered securities to investors.
Moreover, the DeFi industry could not escape the oppressive actions of the SEC. Because on June 28, the SEC filed a lawsuit against Consensys, accusing it of unregistered sales of securities through the MetaMask staking service.
*This is not investment advice.
