The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been extremely aggressive against cryptocurrency firms forever.
Compared to all the regulatory authorities from around the world, it is the US SEC that is the strictest. It has lifted a hammer against the cryptocurrency firms and wants to deal huge blows to push them out of the US.
The US SEC is after several cryptocurrency firms alleging them of being involved in selling securities to US locals that are unregistered.
US SEC Goes after Two Major Crypto Firms
This time around, the US SEC is going after two major firms from the cryptocurrency industry. The reports suggest that the securities regulator from the US has gone after Gemini and Genesis Global Capital.
Gemini is among the major cryptocurrency exchanges while Genesis Global Capital is a major cryptocurrency lending firm.
As always, the US SEC has claimed that the firms are involved in selling unregistered securities to the locals in the US.
Further details confirm that it is the “Earn” program of the Gemini exchange that the US SEC has gone after. It claims that the particular program is responsible for offering securities that are not registered.
It was back in December 2020 when a deal had been formed between Gemini and Genesis. The Genesis platform is the Digital Currency Group’s (DCG) subsidiary and its partnership with Gemini was to offer yield-bearing products.
The yield-bearing products would be based on cryptocurrencies and would target the customers on the Gemini exchange.
Following the announcement of the partnership between Gemini and Genesis, it was in February 2021 when the particular product was launched.
The Agreement for the Customers
As part of the agreement between Gemini and Genesis, the customers on the exchange could proceed with acquiring and loaning out their funds to the latter platform. The funds would be loaned in the form of crypto.
Genesis would then return the loan but do it with an interest. It was Genesis that was to work on the entire mechanism of how it would come up with the process of bringing in yields.
The yields would act as the interest that the Genesis platform would repay to the users who provided the loan to the firm in the first place.
The allegation from the US SEC
According to the US SEC’s allegations, the Earn Program offered by Gemini constituted to sale and offer of securities. Therefore, it was something that had to be registered through the US SEC before being offered.
However, the Gemini exchange failed to do it and thus, it is in breach of the Securities Law in the United States. As Genesis was part of the same program, it has been dragged into the matter by the US SEC.
Statement by Gary Gensler
The US SEC Chair further issued a statement on the entire matter involving Gemini and Genesis. He claimed that they are imposing the allegations over these entities based on their bypassing of the disclosure requirements.
These requirements are in place to protect investors from any kind of financial risks or harm. Investors are always at risk of losing their funds to cryptocurrency firms and other kinds of digital assets.
Therefore, it is important that their interests are protected in the best possible manner. It was important for the crypto firms to get the products registered before making them available for US investors.
Gensler clarified that it is not an option for any firm to get their securities registered before offering them to the US locals. It is mandatory and Gemini literally bypassed the protocol and is answerable for its actions.
Things Aren’t Looking Good for Gemini and Genesis
So far, things do not seem to be going in favor of both crypto firms. It was on November 10 when the FTX exchange crashed.
With the exchange’s demise, the $175 million worth of funds Genesis had stored in it went down as well. It has been revealed that DCG now owes $900 million to the clients at Gemini, putting the exchange in great trouble.
In addition to their own troubles, the platforms have been hit by the US SEC.
