Not long ago, Bittrex – a popular digital currency exchange – settled the lawsuit that had been filed against it by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The financial agency has had it in for the firm (like it has with many others), and the company is now looking to get things done quickly and silently so it can continue its operations without interruption, but a former special trial counsel is saying that the same easy route to ending things likely won’t appear for Binance, the world’s largest and most popular digital currency exchange.
Binance Won’t Have It Easy
The SEC presently has a lawsuit against Binance. The financial agency says the exchange has been breaking securities rules since day one. It also says the company has commingled customer funds with those of the company, thus suggesting that Binance has taken a page out of the FTX playbook.
Arthur Jakoby is a former special trial counsel in the SEC’s Division of Enforcement. He commented that while the agency may be going relatively easy on Bittrex, the same outcome should not be expected for Binance or for Coinbase, which is also facing a lawsuit from the SEC. He implied that the agency is looking to make examples of these entities, and that with both being extremely large enterprises, the SEC knows the repercussions and ripples will be just as big. He stated:
The Bittrex settlement does not portend similar SEC settlements for crypto exchange platforms such as Coinbase and Binance. Since Bittrex Global had already closed its U.S. operations and put it into bankruptcy, it will not be affected by this settlement. Thus, there was no need to fight the SEC to establish that its now-closed operations were securities compliant. Beyond the claims of operating an unregistered broker, exchange, and clearing agency, Bittrex and [William] Shihara [former CEO of Bittrex] had also been charged with scrubbing its website of any statements that would suggest violations of U.S. securities laws. This settlement was undoubtedly influenced by these additional actions to escape regulatory scrutiny. The settlement, which does not require an admission of any facts by either Bittrex or Shihara, avoids any further SEC investigation of these allegations.
Jakoby now works as an attorney at the law firm Herrick, Feinstein.
So Many Similar Suits
At the time of writing, Bittrex has agreed to settle with the SEC for around $24 million, a massive payday if ever there was one. The amount compares to the $30 million that was taken from Kraken, another crypto exchange that was forced to settle with the financial agency earlier in the year. It was also made to end all its staking services and activities as part of the deal.
The SEC has become somewhat of a bully in the eyes of many crypto fans.
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