TL;DR

• On Monday, 17 April 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed charges against crypto exchange, Bittrex.

• The main charge: operating as an exchange, broker and clearing agency, without having officially registered as any of the above in the US.

• Many in the Web3 space have been calling for regulation to help clarify what they can and can't do - but they're not finding it...and now, it appears they're looking to the UK.

Full Story

The SEC are back at it.

Yesterday, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed charges against crypto exchange, Bittrex.

The main charge: operating as an exchange, broker and clearing agency, without having officially registered as any of the above in the US.

The SEC also alleged that Bittrex worked with crypto issuers to alter the materials provided to potential investors, rewording them to imply an “expectation of profit.”

(Heavy stuff!)

It feels like new charges are filed by the SEC towards crypto companies every other day - so are there legs to this? Or is it simply a scare tactic in a coordinated effort to cripple the Web3 industry?

As we’ve said in the past, we’re not lawyers.

But, given that Bittrex announced that they would close down operations in the US last month, almost immediately after receiving a Wells notice, it's not a great look.

Many in the Web3 space have been calling for regulation to help clarify what they can and can't do - but they're not finding it.

...and now, it appears they're looking elsewhere:

Not great! (For America).