Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev has become the latest Wall Street powerhouse to face a wave of enforcement action notices from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
retail trading platform disclosed received on friday wells notice From the SEC. Robinhood Crypto warned of possible enforcement and said the agency had previously scrutinized its token list and crypto custody practices. filing.
“The SEC’s continued attacks on cryptocurrencies, coupled with recent rule proposals, […] “This represents yet another inadequate attempt by the administrative state to stifle innovation,” Tenev said on Twitter. post On Monday, he described the “onslaught of regulations” that are holding back U.S. businesses and investors.
Following a similar warning sent to the Ethereum giant consensus and Uniswap Manufacturer uniswap lab, Robinhood Crypto has been found to be a clear target of the SEC. Although Robinhood is not a native cryptocurrency company, it began offering Bitcoin and Ethereum to investors through its app in 2018. It is also claimed that the company has been carefully expanding these offerings through its crypto division over the years.
Dan Gallagher, Robinhood Markets' chief of legal, compliance and corporate affairs, testified before lawmakers on Capitol Hill last year. Said The company's selection is motivated by a “safety first” approach. This also includes a conscious choice not to offer our customers products that involve cryptocurrency lending or staking, where investors can delegate their tokens to the network and receive rewards.
“Unlike our competitors who are growing rapidly and listing hundreds of digital assets on their platform, Robinhood Crypto is taking a more conservative approach,” Gallagher said, adding that the company has It added that it “does not list any digital asset securities” among the 18 tokens available. That platform.
However, after the SEC sued Binance and Coinbase last year, Robinhood Crypto moved To end support for tokens that the SEC claimed were securities. Within weeks, the company's US users lost access to trading in altcoins such as Cardano (ADA), Polygon (MATIC), and Solana (SOL).
Gallagher, who served as SEC commissioner from 2011 to 2015, said in his testimony that addressing the lack of regulatory clarity in cryptocurrencies is “critical” and that companies are facing “a constant barrage of devastating enforcement actions.” There is no need to worry about 'no threat'.
Robinhood Crypto has run into regulatory hurdles before. The company was fined by the New York Department of Financial Services in 2022 and paid the price. $30 million To resolve charges of alleged compliance violations regarding cybersecurity and transaction monitoring practices.
In addition to that, Robinhood agreed to pay $65 million This is to resolve charges brought by the SEC in 2020 for making misleading statements to investors. And in 2021, financial industry regulators will $70 million It imposed fines for “extensive and significant harm suffered by customers” and imposed the largest financial penalty ever.
Anyway, Tenev Said Robinhood Crypto Inc. said on Twitter on Monday that it is not afraid of a legal battle with Wall Street's top regulator. He said. “While we strive to maintain a positive and productive relationship with regulators, we will use our resources to litigate this matter in court if necessary.”
Edited by Andrew Hayward
