The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said in a statement on Thursday that the online investment platform eToro (eToro) agreed to pay a fine of US$1.5 million for "operating an unregistered broker," "operating an unregistered clearing agency," and "operating an unregistered broker." Settled charges of “facilitating the trading of certain crypto-assets as securities.”
The statement noted that as part of the settlement agreement, eToro has agreed to "cease violations of applicable federal securities laws" and only provide users with a limited variety of crypto assets, although eToro noted that these restrictions will only affect approximately 3% of customer holdings of crypto assets. value.
The statement mentioned that in the future, the cryptocurrencies that US users can trade on the eToro platform will be limited to Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Ethereum (ETH).
An eToro spokesperson further explained that "in most cases, US users do not need to take any action" and "only positions that cannot be transferred to the eToro cryptocurrency wallet will be affected."
"This settlement allows us to move forward and continue to focus on providing more innovative and relevant products in the U.S. market," said Yoni Assia, co-founder and CEO of eToro.
It is worth noting that eToro reached a settlement without “admitting” or “denying” the relevant accusations. According to the SEC, eToro has allowed U.S. customers to trade “crypto-assets offered and sold as securities” since at least 2020 and “failed to comply with the registration requirements of the federal securities laws.”
However, the SEC did not specify which of the cryptocurrencies offered by eToro were deemed securities, a departure from past practice. In recent years, the U.S. SEC has taken enforcement actions against a number of cryptocurrency companies. In addition to the earlier lawsuit against Ripple, last year it also accused Coinbase and Binance of violating securities laws, and this year it accused ConsenSys' MetaMask of providing unregistered services. securities.
Yoni Assia added: “We currently have a clear regulatory framework for crypto assets in the UK and European markets, and I believe that a similar framework will be introduced in the United States soon. Once regulations are in place, we will consider reopening crypto asset transactions that comply with these specifications. "
〈Reached settlement with SEC! eToro swallowed a $1.5 million fine and agreed to delist most cryptocurrencies. This article was first published on "Blocker".