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The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is reportedly investigating Kraken, one of the United States’ leading cryptocurrency exchanges.
According to a report from Bloomberg, crypto exchange Kraken is being probed by the SEC over possible breaches of legislation regarding the offering of securities in the United States. According to an anonymous source, the investigation is already well underway and a settlement could be reached in the near future. It was not stated which tokens or cryptocurrencies were the reason behind the launch of the investigation.
Previously, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler had stated that the goal for regulating cryptocurrency is to create the infrastructure so that cryptocurrency trading exchanges and digital assets lending platforms are compliant with the law. He noted that this could be by registering through the SEC directly or through other financial authorities in the country in order to comply and be above board with financial law. He noted that exchanges and firms that offer crypto services that do not comply “will not last“:
“Come into compliance. Your field will not last long outside of public policy norms.”
Despite this warning, the CEO of Kraken Dave Ripley stated that he had no intention of registering Kraken with the SEC because it does not offer securities:
“There are not any tokens out there that are securities that we’re interested in listing… There could be some new token out there that becomes interesting and also happens to simultaneously be a security [and] in that case, we would potentially be interested in that path.”
While Ripley believes the cryptocurrencies offered by Kraken do not fall under securities, Gensler does not seem to agree as he noted that most cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin ($BTC) are considered securities by the SEC.
Without a defined classification, it is difficult to know which cryptocurrencies are securities and should be listed as such. As the regulatory landscape continues to evolve, it will be important for exchanges and other players in the market to understand and comply with the rules to avoid enforcement actions.