US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), crypto platform Bittrex officially blamed the stock market. The accusation followed a Wells notice in March 2023, soon after the crypto exchange announced that it was ending its US operations. However, the news about the Wells notification, which preceded the stock market’s decision to leave the notification, was delayed by the press.
SEC, also accused Bittrex co-founder William Shihara of operating an “unregistered national stock exchange, broker and clearing agency” in its complaint. The SEC also accused Bittrex Global GmbH, the exchange’s foreign subsidiary, of failing to register as a national stock exchange because it operates a single shared order book with the exchange.
Gurbir Grewal, Director of the SEC’s Executive Division, claimed that Bittrex repeatedly chose profit over investor protection. The complaint added that the exchange is bound to circumvent registration requirements of securities laws. Interestingly, the SEC also stated that it wants to send a message to other important figures with this complaint.
Today’s action not only holds Bittrex liable for the abuses we claim put investors at risk, but should send a message to other noncompliant crypto market intermediaries to be held liable for their compliance or violations of federal securities laws.
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The SEC said CEO William Shihara has ensured that “problematic statements” are deleted from the public domain to prevent institutions from investigating the direction of selling crypto assets as securities. It was stated that among the deleted statements, terms such as “price forecast” and “profit expectation” were also included. The complaint also alleged that Bittrex facilitated asset trading for tokens offered and sold as securities.
The Bittrex trading page displays price changes, just like registered trading platforms that are allowed to trade securities. The complaint mentions six cryptocurrencies, namely Algorand (ALGO), OmiseGO (OMG), Dash (DASH), TokenCard (TKN), I-House Token (IHT) and NAGA (NGC) and states that they can be traded as securities on the platform. is underlined.
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