“It’s going to vary by jurisdiction, but given the importance of the US jurisdiction and the greater theme of things, it’s not entirely surprising.” “I think that’s part of the discussion that probably occurs behind the scenes between some of the exchanges, some of the decentralized protocols and regulators in general,” Sangha said in an interview with Blockworks. This comes shortly after Uniswap - a decentralized exchange not incorporated in any jurisdiction - announced it was delisting some tokens from its user interface (code for which is centralized on a US-based server) because of the “evolving regulatory landscape”. Shortly after the announcement, Binance followed suit and limited leverage access. Now, the greatest allowed leverage would be 20x. Meanwhile, the ICO investors last tried to file a lawsuit against the company back in 2019.Bankman-Fried said that while there is certainly a place for margin trading, and the majority of those that used it are professional investors, it was time to curb access to it. The wallets became active after three years, only to convert more than $22 million worth of ether (ETH) to USDC.Ĭommunity members have made attempts to notify Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, of the funds. The company has also failed to deliver on its promise to build a blockchain-based decentralized platform for launching no-code software – so far has released only demos.Įarlier this year, famous blockchain security researcher Zachxbt disclosed on Twitter that the seemingly inactive project was moving around funds in its wallets. The SEC action against Ballina comes after SPRK token ICO investors have seen their funds stuck in limbo for years. ![]() Sparkster continues to remain an ICO-era oddity “Because of Balina’s influence as an ICO promoter, Sparkster’s CEO understood that if the Sparkster Offering was included in Balina’s ICO spreadsheet and promoted through his social media channels, it would reach his large audience of crypto asset investors and enthusiasts, drawing attention and investors to the Sparkster Offering,” the charges said. ![]() The SEC is seeking a jury trial, as well as requesting penalties including injunctive relief, disgorgement, civil penalties, and otherĪppropriate and necessary equitable relief from the Token Metrics CEO, a Texas resident. The SEC found that he also received a 30% bonus from the company for the tokens he purchased but never publicly disclosed his consideration for this promotion. At the time, the Cayman Islands incorporated company illegally raised approximately $30 million from nearly 4,000 investors based broadly in the U.S.īallina signed a contract to invest in the offering and promoted the offered SPRK tokens on YouTube, Telegram, and other social media platforms. The offences date back to the Sparkster Token Initial Coin Offering (ICO) between April and July 2018. Secondly, he also promoted and offered his unregistered security when he failed to file a registration statement with the commission for the tokens he re-sold after investing $5 million in the offering using an investing pool that he organized for about 50 persons on Telegram. ![]() Securities Act were twofold.įor one, the SEC claims that the “self-described crypto asset investor, promoter, and influencer” failed to disclose that he was receiving compensation from Sparkster Labs, the issuer of SPRK, while publicly promoting the unregistered security token. District Court, Western District of Texas Austin Division on September 19, the regulator spelt out that the offences Ballina, 33, committed in violation of the U.S. In the court documents filed by the SEC in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has slammed Ian Ballina, the founder of Token Metrics, with a lawsuit alleging that his involvement with Sparkster Token (SPRK) amounted to offering and promoting unregistered securities.
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