BlockFi Received Cease and Desist in New Jersey
- BlockFi has until the 22 July to comply with the order, and stop onboarding new BlockFi Interest Account (BIA) clients.
- The firm’s CEO disagreed with the decision, and said BlockFi was “engaged in an ongoing dialogue with regulators to help them understand our products”.
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A cease and desist order from the New Jersey Bureau of Securities is now preventing crypto lending firm BlockFi from onboarding new interest account clients, Forbes reported on 19 July.
While the publication cited an unpublished draft press release — which accused BlockFi of offering unregistered securities to its BlockFi Interest Account (BIA) clients —Zack Prince, BlockFi’s CEO, confirmed the company had received the order via Twitter on 20 July. The company now has two days to comply with the order, and stop onboarding new BIA clients. Prince tweeted:
Prince further explained BlockFi will remain “fully operational” to its existing New Jersey clients, and they could continue accessing all aspects of the platform. He also stated that BlockFi was “engaged in an ongoing dialogue with regulators to help them understand our products”, and that the company disagrees with the decision that BIA is a security.
It appears that regulators around the world are now taking more notice of the crypto industry, and its unregulated sectors. While BlockFi has received a notice from one state, cryptocurrency exchange Binance has already received several warnings from financial regulators around the world, including the U.K., Italy, Hong Kong, and Lithuania. The exchange is also terminating support for its stock tokens — released only three months ago — after BaFin warned they may be violating E.U. securities rules.
- A cyber security incident at bankruptcy service provider Kroll has resulted in the exposure of “non-sensitive” customer data for claimants involved in the FTX and BlockFi cases.
- Both companies confirmed that account passwords, systems, and funds remained safe, but warned customers to be on the lookout for phishing scams.
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- Crypto.com has once again expanded its regulatory achievements with the acquisition of a major payment institution license for digital payment token services in Singapore.
- The license, for which the company received an in-principle approval last June, enables the exchange to provide a greater range of payment services in Singapore.
- The current governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, announced he is joining the race for the 47th president of the U.S. during a Twitter Spaces event on Wednesday.
- During his speech DeSantis declared his support for Bitcoin and the wider crypto space, noting that if Joe Biden is re-elected “they’ll probably end up killing it”.