In a recent article reported by Turner Wright, “The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that cryptocurrency platform Abra had agreed to a settlement in connection with allegations that the company failed to register offers and sales of its lending product”
To wit, “The SEC filed charges against the lending platform for failing to register Abra Earn's offers and sales and operating as an unregistered investment company”
According to regulators, “The SEC alleged that Abra marketed its Earn service as a way for investors to earn interest ‘auto-magically’ and instead generated revenue for itself. The platform began offering Abra Earn to investors in the United States in July 2020, facilitating approximately USD 600 million in assets globally at its peak”
An Abra spokesperson told Cointelegraph that the platform had discontinued Abra Earn in 2022 and transferred the assets of the service's U.S. users to their Abra Trade accounts in 2023. They added that Plutus Lending “agrees to continue to comply with securities laws.”
The SEC notice followed a settlement reached by Abra and its CEO, William Barhydt, with 25 U.S. state regulators for operating without a license. In 2020, the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission fined Abra USD 300,000 for offering “security-based swaps” to retail investors without proper registration.
SOURCES CONSULTED
Cointelegraph. Abra settles with SEC over unregistered securities charges. Link
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