SEC, CFTC hits the Crypto 1Broker platform with charges – Investors are worried

American Regulators Strikes 1Broker Crypto Platform with legal fees, site seized

On Wednesday afternoon, many investors in this sector were taken by surprise, as the American Securities And Exchange Commission (SEC), which began to take on an increasing role in the asset space, revealed that it had charged 1pool Ltd, known as 1Broker to cryptocurrency investors.

For an official version of the regulatory body, the SEC mandated the startup, together with its CEO in Austria, to "allegedly violate federal securities laws in relation to security-based swaps funded with bitcoins".

Elaborating the motivations behind the allegations, the SEC explained that Patrick Brunner had allowed US investors to buy and sell security-based swaps without "meeting the discretionary investment thresholds required by federal securities law". In addition, it was noted that the SEC also believes that the platform is fraudulently emitting swaps and not even allowed to legally exchange security-based swaps on any international or domestic stock exchange.

Shamoil Shipchandler, the director of the SEC Fort Worth regional office who handled the case, said:

The SEC protects US investors on a variety of platforms, regardless of the type of currency used in their transactions. International companies that trade with US investors can not circumvent compliance with federal securities laws using cryptocurrency.

In this case, the SEC and the CFTC are demanding "permanent injunctions", along with legal and financial sanctions to be placed on 1Broker.

As revealed later by Alex Kruger, an Argentine cryptanalute analyst in New York, the FBI had effectively seized the dominion of the platform loaded into a probable coordinated attack by the major government agencies.

This could happen to cryptographic exchanges that offer security token exchanges and security token derivatives. Self $ XRP they had to be defined as a security that would jeopardize trade like Bitmex. Binance is at risk regardless. Many security tokens there. pic.twitter.com/9uxLdtwGnF

– Alex Krüger 🇦🇷 (@Crypto_Macro) September 27, 2018

Although the site has apparently returned online, it still seems that the start of cryptocurrencies recorded by Marshall is still closely monitored. Evidently, following the release of this rather unexpected announcement, many investors, industry leaders, commentators and companies have taken to social media platforms to express their views on this topic, which is a blow to this budding industry.

Blue Protocol, a less well known but well established cryptocurrency security startup, took its official Twitter account to reveal that it had internal sources claiming that 1Broker is not "the only exchange that will see the application of the SEC to short".

Not revealing the source that gave them the aforementioned morsel of information, Blue, which was recognized for their anti-centralized point of view, adding that centralized exchanges are not the best place to store cryptographic assets due to the fact that they do not regulatory uncertainty and the questionable manner in which some of these exchanges work.

We are feeling that 1Broker is not the only exchange that will see the application of the SEC shortly. If you want to be safe, we recommend removing your encryption from centralized exchanges and keeping your funds in a decentralized portfolio. If the withdrawal option disappears it is too late.

– Blue Protocol – Crypto Age Protection (@Blue_Protocol) September 28, 2018

While some have canceled the claims of the startup as "unjustified" FUD, many fear that this may be just the beginning of repressions in this sector, which is still fragile, to say the least. The aforementioned Argentine commentator on cryptocurrency explained that "many non-US exchanges are at risk [and that] falling trade could represent a temporary black swan event. "

Interestingly, this news has not had any noticeable effect on the price of cryptographic activities in general, which have mobilized over the last day or so.

Photo by Rob Girkin on Unsplash