The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced Tuesday that it has filed a trading suspension lawsuit against cryptocurrency company ShapeShift, alleging that it operated as an unregistered securities dealer.
“Cryptocurrency assets offered by ShapeShift include assets offered and sold in investment contracts and are therefore securities,” the SEC said on Tuesday. filingCiting a 1946 court case: Howey test.
The agency decided to accept ShapeShift’s offer to resolve the charges by paying a $275,000 civil penalty in addition to an agreement to prevent future securities regulatory violations, the filing said.
ShapeShift, founded by Erik Voorhees, closed its direct cryptocurrency asset exchange platform in 2021 after previously operating in Colorado from October 2017 to February 2020, according to SEC filings. The company was founded in Switzerland.
securities debate
The question of whether sales of cryptocurrency assets should be classified as securities transactions has been at the center of a legal dispute between the SEC and several cryptocurrency companies, including exchanges Ripple, Coinbase, and Kraken.
last week, US court ruled Trading certain cryptocurrency assets on secondary markets, such as cryptocurrency exchanges, is a securities transaction, which conflicts with the views of the broader cryptocurrency industry.
SEC said in the notice The company attempted to use the default judgment in its lawsuit against Coinbase to support its claim that the exchange operated as an unregistered securities brokerage. Coinbase is After the challenge In response to the latest claims, the agency said in a filing that “the ruling should be given no weight.”
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