While US regulators SEC and CFTC continue their pressure on the cryptocurrency industry, the latest victim of this pressure was DeFi platforms.
According to Coindesk, CFTC said in its statement that it accused three DeFi platforms Opyn, ZeroEx (0x Protocol) and Deridex of offering illegal derivative trading to investors and launched an investigation against them.
The CFTC charged Opyn and Deridex with offering illegal leveraged commodity trading using cryptocurrencies, failing to register as a futures commission investor, and violating consumer protections established in the Bank Secrecy Act.
In the face of these charges, the CFTC asked the platforms to stop the violations and pay a certain amount of fines.
At this point, the CFTC asked Opyn to pay a penalty of $250,000, ZeroEx to pay a penalty of $200,000, and Deridex to pay a penalty of $100,000.
CFTC executive director Ian McGinley said in a statement that DeFi platforms must follow more specific rules to act within the law:
“The DeFi space may be new, complex and evolving, but the Enforcement Division will continue to evolve with it and will aggressively pursue those who operate unregistered platforms that allow U.S. citizens to buy and sell digital asset derivatives.”
Finally, it was stated that ZeroEx cooperated with the CFTC and therefore the penalty imposed on the company was reduced.
After this news, ZeroEx's token 0x Protocol (ZRX) declined to $ 0.166, but XRZ, which recovered afterwards, is trading at $ 1.1727 at the time of writing.
*This is not investment advice.
