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.
*Not investment advice.
