Bittrex, a Washington-based crypto-asset trading platform, has agreed to pay $24 million to settle allegations that it operates as an unregistered exchange, broker, and clearinghouse for securities offered and sold as crypto-assets by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). .
According to the SEC's criminal complaint, Bittrex and its co-founder and former CEO, William Shihara, were accused of violating federal securities laws by facilitating the trading of crypto assets, which are securities without registering with the SEC or complying with its rules and regulations.
The SEC alleged that Bittrex and Shihara also instructed crypto-asset issuers to delete certain statements from public channels that could attract regulatory scrutiny, such as price forecasts, profit expectations, and investment-related terms.
The SEC claimed that Bittrex earned at least $1.3 billion in transaction fees from investors, including US investors, and served them as a broker, exchange and clearing house without registering any of these activities with the Commission.
The SEC also accused Bittrex's foreign subsidiary, Bittrex Global GmbH, of failing to register as a national stock exchange in connection with a single joint order book operation with Bittrex.
As part of the settlement, Bittrex neither acknowledged nor denied the SEC's claims. Gurbir S. Grewal, Director of the SEC's Executive Division, said:
“Bittrex has worked with token issuers for years to evade federal securities laws, 'purging' their online statements of any indication that they are investment contracts. They failed. Today's consensus makes it clear that you cannot escape responsibility simply by changing labels or changing descriptions, because it is the economic realities of these proposals that matter. I am grateful to the SEC staff for aggressively monitoring and resolving impropriety in the crypto industry and providing additional relief to injured investors.”
As part of the settlement, which is subject to court approval, the defendants will permanently prevent Bittrex and Shihara from violating Sections 5, 15(a) and 17A of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and prevent Bittrex Global from violating Section 5 of the same Act. consented to make final decisions.
In addition, Bittrex and Bittrex Global agreed to pay $14.4 million in damages, $4 million in injunctive interest and $5.6 million in civil penalties, jointly and severally, and a total fine of $24 million.
*Not investment advice.