The KRYPTO platform Blockfi pays a penalty of $ 100 million for interest-bearing accounts

The US supervisory authorities have taken their first enforcement measure when lending of cryptocurrencies and agreed with Blockfi comparisons of $ 100 million on fees that were offered without registering as securities.

The US stock exchange supervisory authority Securities and Exchange Commission announced on Monday that it has agreed with the company a comparison of $ 50 million, which will again pay the same amount to a group of 32 countries.

The Federal Supervisory Authority said that the case clarifies a legal gray area about popular interest-bearing accounts associated with cryptocurrency credit products and warned that further such cases could come if other lenders do not register with the Commission. Blockfi based in New Jersey said that the first interest-bearing crypto security product will soon be offered at the Sec.

"This is the first case of this kind in relation to crypto credit platforms," ​​said Gary Gensler, the chairman of the SEC. "Today's comparison makes it clear that cryptoma markets have to comply with proven securities laws."

The lending in cryptocurrency has experienced a boom with the recent increase in digital assets, with start-ups like Celsius also users who are ready to store their tokens, offer high returns. Many programs in decentralized financing also offer interest -bearing products without going through middlemen and banks.

Blockfi started selling its blockfi interest accounts in March 2019 and offered a variable interest rate for investors' crypto assets.

By December 8th last year, according to the SEC registration, 572,160 people had invested a total of $ 10.4 billion in bias. Blockfi was rated last March by investors such as Bain Capital Ventures and Tiger Global Management with USD 3 billion.

The SEC claimed that Blockfi had violated the law by offering these accounts with the promise of regular interest payments, but without registering with the Commission beforehand.

Gurbir Grewal, director of the SEC enforcement department, said: “Crypto credit platforms that offer securities such as the BIAS of Blockfi should immediately take note of today's resolution and comply with the federal securities laws.”

Blockfi had previously insisted that the account was "no security" and "lawful and appropriate for cryptoma market participants".

The case marks a new front in Gensler's attempts to bring the rapidly growing world of cryptocurrencies into the area of ​​responsibility of the US regulatory authorities. He said the Financial Times last year that crypto trading platforms had to be regulated to survive and asked such companies to register with the Commission.

The SEC also claimed that Blockfi made its product appear less risky than it was by saying that its institutional loans were “typically” covered by more than enough collateral to cover potential losses. In fact, according to the Commission, this does not apply to most of their institutional loans.

Sec-officials said the punishment was much higher if the company hadn't worked quickly with the officials.

Blockfi, which has not admitted misconduct, will continue to operate the BIA accounts, but will not accept new investments in them. Instead, it starts a new crypto account called Blockfi Yield, which is registered with the SEC.

ZAC Prince, Chief Executive from Blockfi, said: “Today's milestone is another example of our groundbreaking efforts to ensure regulatory clarity for the entire industry and our customers, as we did in our first product - the crypto -assisted loan.

"We intend that Blockfi Yield becomes a new, interest-bearing crypto value paper, which enables customers to earn interest on their crypto-assets."