The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and various state regulators have investigated over 90 cases of cryptocurrency in which investors have lost money.
According to a report in The Wall Street newspaperThe SEC is currently investigating BitConnect, a cryptic investment platform that investors have paid money over last year's bitcoin – just to lose everything. People close to the matter told the newspaper that investors are not able to get any repayment, despite the SEC's investigation.
BitConnect is just one of the 90 cases in which the SEC and state regulators have launched in the last 24 months. Surveys come in a two-year period where cryptocurrency prices have fluctuated from historical highs to steep lows.
One of the attractions of cryptocurrencies – anonymity – is the reason why the SEC and state regulators should have little success in returning the lost money. The WSJ cited comments SEC President Jay Clayton did last year, warning that the SEC could not be effective in persecuting scammers and recovering funds invested in digital tokens. Part of the reason, Clayton said at the time, is that some of the proceeds end up outside the United States.
Based on a newspaper analysis of the 90 cryptocurrency cases that the SEC pursued, regulators tracked down only $ 36 million for investors. The investigations are aimed at stopping the offerings of illegal initial coins (ICO), Ponzi schemes and pump-and-dump scams, but very few have been archived during the top of the crypt, when many companies were launching ICO and bitcoin's price was sky-high. More recently, with the collapse of prices and increasingly skeptical investors, the SEC has filed more cases. The WSJ noted that in November the SEC presented five cases compared to four in 2017.
In an interview with the newspaper, Clayton said he believed that the SEC warnings about the risks associated with cryptocurrencies and law enforcement actions may have reduced some of the excesses on the market.
"The SEC helped to get rid of the patina of legitimacy," said Clayton.
Meanwhile, Robert Cohen, head of the SEC cryptography investigation, told the newspaper that the cases the SEC has presented send a strong message to all areas of the digital token market: "We have been able to make investors new integers in cases where filed, but it's not just about how much money is recovered. "
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