Poloniex Agrees to Pay Over $10M in Fines to the SEC For Running Unregistered Crypto Exchange

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Poloniex Agrees to Pay Over $10M in Fines to the SEC For Running Unregistered Crypto Exchange

The popular cryptocurrency exchange has agreed to pay upwards of $10M in fines to the SEC.

According to a recent press release, the popular cryptocurrency exchange, Poloniex, has agreed to pay a fine upwards of $10 million to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.

The release reads that the company has agreed to pay the fine for operating an unregistered digital asset exchange.

According to the order of the SEC, from July 2017 to November 2019, when Poloniex sold out the platform, it was operating a web-based trading platform that wasn’t registered, despite meeting the criteria of an “exchange,” as stipulated by the securities laws.

Moreover, the Commission also found that employees of Poloniex had stated that they wanted the exchange wanted to be “aggressive” in making new digital assets available on the platform.

Speaking on the matter was Kristina Littman, Chief of the SE Enforcement Division’s Cyber Unit:

Poloniex chose increased profits over compliance with the federal securities laws by including digital asset securities on its unregistered exchange. […] Poloniex attempted to circumvent the SEC’s regulatory regime, which applies to any marketplace for bringing together buyers and sellers of securities regardless of the applied technology.