The Securities and Exchange Commission charged Florida-based TradeStation Crypto, Inc., for failing to register the offer and sale of a crypto lending product that promised investors a way to earn interest.
TradeStation is a mainstream finance platform founded in 1982 and acquired by the Japanese finance group Monex in 2011. In 2020, it started offering cryptocurrency deposit accounts allowing customers to earn interest. As of 2021, TradeStation had 11,122 active users participating in the interest feature globally, according to the filing.
“This case highlights the importance of ensuring that investors benefit from the disclosure requirements provided by the federal securities laws, regardless of the label applied to the offering,” Stacy Bogert, associate director of the SEC’s division of enforcement, said in a statement.In a parallel action announced on Wednesday, TradeStation agreed to pay another $1.