tl;dr
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a cease-and-desist against ShapeShift, a crypto exchange that previously operated out of Denver, Colorado, for operating as an unregistered dealer for cryptocurrencies that were securities. As part of the filing, the SEC accepted a settlement offer b...
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a cease-and-desist against ShapeShift, a crypto exchange that previously operated out of Denver, Colorado, for operating as an unregistered dealer for cryptocurrencies that were securities.
As part of the filing, the SEC accepted a settlement offer by ShapeShift, which included a $275,000 fine and an agreement that the company would no longer violate the Securities Exchange Act.
ShapeShift offered "at least 79 crypto assets" to its customers, which included "those that were offered and sold as investment contracts," the filing said, though it did not name any specific digital assets as being securities.
The company shut the U.S. exchange in 2021, the SEC said. The findings in the cease-and-desist are not binding on any other person or entity.
As a part of the settlement, ShapeShift is now barred from operating as an unregistered dealer and listing crypto securities in the U.S.
SEC spokespeople did not immediately return a request for comment, and ShapeShift founder Erik Voorhees emailed CoinDesk a link to a tweet in which he quoted from one of the Federalist Papers.
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