CFTC Continues to Relentlessly Pursue Enforcement Actions against Crypto Venues

At least 14 additional crypto venues in the US have been charged by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) over allegations of non-registration. CFTC claims that the charged crypto firms were engaged in seeking investments against virtual products without being first registered with CFTC. The authority also suspects these 14 firms as potential crypto scams.

Two of the US’s major regulators namely CFTC and Securities & Exchange Commission have been relentlessly pursuing enforcement actions against crypto venues. For instance, two of the very prominent local crypto firms i.e. Bitmex and Kraken were asked to pay fines. Both of them were charged for engaging in the selling of crypto products which required registrations with CFTC.

Now there have been further actions stemming from CFTC against crypto trading platforms. At least 14 crypto firms have been identified as violating the Foreign Exchange Act. CFTC has raised allegations against them that they were seeking public investment without even registering their investment products.

The actions taken were duly announced and published on the website of CFTC on 27^th September 2021. CFTC apprised that 14 crypto companies have been charged because they were found to be unregistered as “futures commission merchants” i.e. FCMs. There could be a possibility also that these firms might be misguiding the investors by making false promises with them, suspected CFTC.

According to CFTC, many of these identified firms may well be “crypto scams”. CFTC noticed that many of them are hosting websites that are look-alike or identical to other websites. However, all of these crypto firms have been asking investors to invest and telling them that they are regulated. In addition, they are making false claims with regard to returns on investment. They are promising returns that not only look absurd but look impossible because of being relatively on the higher side.

CFTC suggested that 12 out of 14 are making claims that they are FCMs. Against these false claims, they are engaging with potential investors and encouraging them to acquire binary options against crypto and other currencies. It has been also noticed that the suspected platforms are also requiring investors to transfer certain amounts of funds/assets directly to their accounts. However, none of these 12 platforms are FCMs having been registered with CFTC.

The names of these 12 firms are Excotradeoptions, Bitfxprofit, Binancefxtrade, Tradingforexpay, Maxforexoption, Smarter Signals, Globalnationfx, StarFxPro, Prime Expert, Proctyptominners and Cryptofxtrader and Profx-Capitals.

Amongst them, three of the firms have identical content on their websites. While the website of Procryptominners has gone offline presently.

As regards crypto platforms namely Digitalexchange24.com and Climax Capital FX, CFTC notes that they are offering future trading. Both of them also making claims that they are registered firms with CFTC. Consequently, all 14 platforms have been ordered by CFTC to cease and desist from doing any business. Inquiries against these firms too have been initiated in the meantime.