Revealed on Monday, EOS block maker Block.one agrees to pay $24M penalty to settle a case against the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The penalty was imposed by the SEC for conducting an unregistered Initial Coin Offering (ICO) between June 26, 2017 and June 1, 2018.

Block.one is a company behind the famous EOS Blockchain which had raised $4.1 billion in a securities sale between 2017 to 2018 which SEC claimed as unregistered. As per SEC, Block.one failed to register its ICO as a securities offering with SEC which signifies that the company violated the securities law. While the firm successfully raised billions in its ICO, it must pay millions in penalties.

In a press release on Monday, SEC states that the unregistered ICO offering also captured a number of US investors who participated in it. Steven Peikin, the co-director of the Division of Enforcement bet higher on the SEC’s effort of cracking down on such acts that tend to bring investors at riskier zones. In his words;

“Block.one did not provide ICO investors the information they were entitled to as participants in a securities offering,” said Steven Peikin, “The SEC remains committed to bringing enforcement cases when investors are deprived of material information they need to make informed investment decisions.”

As a response, Block.one released a new blog entitling “Block.one announces a settlement with US Securities and Exchange Commission”. The firm notes that the settlement is purely related to “ERC-20 token sold on the ETH blockchain” which is no longer in circulation. And in further note, the firm partially agreed to SEC’s finding, stating that “Block.one will pay a one-time fine of US$24 million, whilst neither admitting nor denying the SEC’s finding”. Furthermore, Block.one clarifies that this settlement puts an end to all ongoing legal matters between the firm and regulator.

“We are excited to resolve these discussions with the SEC and are committed to ongoing collaboration with regulators and policy makers as the world continue to develop more clarity around compliance frameworks for digital assets, Company said in a statement”

Although Block.one agrees to pay the penalty SEC levied, its worth noting that the penalty charges are merely 1 percent of the billions raised during the ICO. On the other side of the matter, it appears that  violating laws by raising funds via unregistered securities is still a profitable business which is why Gabiel Shapio,the founder of crypto focused Zero law criticized SEC, stating;

Honestly I think this is a bad look for the SEC. This sends a message that violating securities laws can be quite profitable.”

Image Source – Flickr

Notice: Information contained herein is not and should not be construed as an offer, solicitation, or recommendation to buy or sell securities. The information has been obtained from sources we believe to be reliable; however no guarantee is made or implied with respect to its accuracy, timeliness, or completeness. Authors may own the crypto currency they discuss. The information and content are subject to change without notice. Visionary Financial and its affiliates do not provide investment, tax, legal or accounting advice. This material has been prepared for informational purposes only and is the opinion of the author, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, investment, tax, legal, accounting advice. You should consult your own investment, tax, legal and accounting advisors before engaging in any transaction. All content published by Visionary Financial is not an endorsement whatsoever. Visionary Financial was not compensated to submit this article Please also visit our Privacy policy; disclaimer; and terms and conditions page for further information.

You May Also Like

Combined With Libra, Facebook’s Recent Patent Could Make it The Most Powerful Company in Finance

It has taken nearly six years but Facebook’s Personal Finance Tracking Patent was finally…

Steem Launches Soft Fork to Limit the Voting Power of Justin Sun

At the start of this year, Justin Sun and the TRON Foundation…
Simple Trick To Saving 1%+ On Binance Trades

One Simple Trick To Saving 1%+ On Binance Trades

In this article I discuss cost-effective order execution and how traders can…
ryan felton

Producer Ryan Felton Indicted by Federal Grand Jury For Crypto Fraud

Ryan Felton was indicted on September 12, 2020, by a federal grand…

Australia Authorities Arrest A Woman For Illegally Exchanging Money For Crypto

Australian police recently arrested a 52-year old woman and charged her with…

Malaysians Turn To Crypto Trading Amidst Lockdown

There has been a sharp increase in crypto trading in Malaysia amidst…

Binance US Will Launch Next Week: Why It Could Decimate Binance Coin ( BNB ) Prices

Binance announced that it would launch the US version of its exchange…
Radix

Radix Integrates Chainlink To Ease Access To DeFi Oracles

On October 6, 2020, Radix announced that it would integrate with Chainlink to…

TradeSanta Trading Bot Review

Overview TradeSanta is a cryptocurrency trading automation software well-suited for beginners and…

Ethereum Co-Founder Sells 92,000 ETH, Crypto Community Reaction Stays Mixed

Jeffrey Wickle, a co-founder of Ethereum recently sold off 92,000 ETH worth about $11…