A worldwide research company has been sued by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) for offering unlicensed crypto products to its subsidiary Finder.
ASIC announced in a recent statement that it is suing Finder Wallet, a subsidiary of research firm Finder, “alleging unlicensed conduct and inadequate risk disclosure.” As a reason for the lawsuit in question, a connection with Finder Wallet crypto interest product shown. Released in November 2021 Finder Earn The product in question is a stablecoin pegged to the Australian Dollar. True AUD (TAUD) annually in exchange for 4.01% with 6.01% offered a profit. This crypto interest product belonging to Finder Wallet had to stop its operations due to the lawsuit initiated.
ASIC said the product is very similar to a debenture and therefore requires licensing under Australian Financial Services (AFS):
At ASIC, our message to the industry is clear: just because an offering includes a crypto-asset-related product does not guarantee that it will fall outside the current regulatory regime.
Although ASIC is adamant on licensing, the Finder front has stated that it will oppose this lawsuit and disagree with the authority.
A Finder.com spokesperson made the following statements in a statement on the subject:
We do not share the ASIC’s view that Finder Earn can be considered a debenture. Since Finder Earn was launched in November 2021, we have worked proactively with ASIC and fully cooperated with all ASIC requests for information.
On the other hand, as confirmed by both ASIC and Finder, all funds contained in the product, which was discontinued due to the lawsuit, were returned to customers.