Circle Under SEC Investigation
- The investigation was revealed in a filing part of Circle’s plans to go public through a merger with Concord Acquisition Corp, which valued the company at $4.5 billion.
- The SEC subpoenaed Circle back in July, requesting a number of documents connected to some of the company’s holdings, programs, and operations.
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The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commissions has issued an “investigative subpoena” to Circle, the firm behind the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin, the company said in a regulatory filing on 4 October.
According to the document, the regulator was trying to obtain a number of documents and information from Circle regarding some of its holdings, customer programs, and operations. While the company did not elaborate on what the SEC was investigating, it did state it had plans to “fully cooperate” with the regulator, which issued the subpoena back in July.
The filing, which revealed the investigation, is part of Circle’s plans to go public using a special-purpose acquisition vehicle through a merger with Concord Acquisition Corp, which has valued Circle at $4.5 billion.
This is not the first time Circle was connected to a SEC investigation this year, with the company having agreed to pay more than $10 million in fines back in August for charges against its former subsidiary Poloniex, which was accused of operating as an unregistered crypto exchange.
Under the guidance of Gary Gensler, the SEC has been more and more aggressive when it comes to crypto regulation and enforcement. Last month, the regulator threatened cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase that it could be sued over its yet-to-launch “Lend” program, which intends to provide a 4% annual yield returns to users that deposit their USDC.
- The digital ID project said Orb Operators received USDC payments as part of the project’s transitional phase after launch, and now that it is nearing its end Worldcoin will be switching to WLD payments.
- Worldcoin warned Orb Operators to check if they can claim rewards in their region as WLD are not available in the United States and “certain other restricted territories”.
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- During an interview with FT, CEO Brian Armstrong said that before the lawsuit a SEC staff member had said that all crypto except BTC was security, and should be delisted.
- When asked how he came to that conclusion, the SEC staff member reportedly said “we’re not going to explain it to you, you need to delist every asset other that Bitcoin”.
- A federal judge ruled that the sale of XRP through exchanges and algorithms did not qualify as selling securities, which could have a major impact on several SEC lawsuits.
- The institutional sale of the token, however, did violate federal securities laws, and the lawsuit between the SEC and Ripple will have to go to trial.