SEC charges Bittrex, cofounder for operating unregistered securities exchange

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday charged cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex and its cofounder William Shihara for operating an unregistered national securities exchange, broker and clearing agency. The platform's affiliate Bittrex Global was also charged for failing to register "in connection with its operation of a single shared order book along with Bittrex," the SEC claimed. The regulator said Bittrex facilitated trading of cryptos since 2014, which it alleged were offered and sold as securities. "From 2017 through 2022, Bittrex earned at least $1.3B in revenues from, among other things, transaction fees from investors, while servicing them as a broker, exchange, and clearing agency without registering these activities." The SEC also claimed that Bittrex and Shihara, who served as its CEO during 2014-2019, coordinated with crypto issuers to delete from public channels "problematic statements" that he believed would lead to regulatory scrutiny before the asset was listed. "Bittrex and issuers it worked with knew the rules, but went to great lengths to evade them by directing issuer-applicants to 'scrub' offering materials of information indicating that certain cryptos were securities," said SEC Chair Gary Gensler. Note that Bittrex U.S. is currently winding down operations due to regulatory uncertainty, effective April 30. "The SEC initiated these proceedings despite the fact that Bittrex Global has no U.S. customers, and has never held itself out as doing business in the U.S.," Bittrex Global said in response to the allegations. "Bittrex U.S. is legally and operationally distinct from Bittrex Global." Bittrex Global disclosed that the SEC issued a Wells Notice less than a month ago without any prior contact. "At no point has the SEC written to us to request any information," it said. "Bittrex Global was willing to work productively with the SEC to explain our position. It has become clear that the SEC is not interested in such discussions." The company said it will challenge the SEC's allegations in court. More on Crypto Clampdown NYDFS adopts new rule to assess costs for supervising licensed crypto firms SEC takes aim at crypto exchanges after reopening proposed rule Coinbase Wells Notice: What Is At 'Stake' Banking, Bitcoin, And (Mis)Behavior