SEC sues Tron founder Justin Sun; Coinbase announced that it received a warning from the SEC; FTX will reclaim $404M transferred to Modulo.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has accused three of its companies, including Justin Sun and Tron Foundation Limited, of selling unregistered securities.
According to The Block, the SEC, Justin Sun and their companies Tron Foundation Limited, BitTorrent Foundation Ltd. and Rainberry Inc. According to the Regulator, Tronix and BitTorrent have been sold through multiple unregistered bounties.
The regulator also accused eight celebrities of illegally promoting TRX and BTT in the same lawsuit. These celebrities include Lindsay Lohan, Jake Paul, Soulja Boy and Austin Mahone.
The SEC stated that the other celebrities, with the exception of Soulja Boy and Mahone, agreed to pay $400,000 to have the charges dropped without admitting to the allegations.
The SEC has previously accused various famous names for similar reasons. The regulator accused Kim Kardashian of marketing the EthereumMax token, and the case was taken to court.
The SEC pointed out that Justin Sun violated securities laws by artificially inflating the trading volume of TRX on the secondary market. This claim of the SEC is known as a “wash trade” in the markets. This is the name given to illegally expanding the trading volume of the asset by making successive transactions. It is forbidden to apply in both crypto markets and traditional markets.
TRX, the native token of the Tron ecosystem, has lost around 10% in the last hour after the news, according to CoinGecko data, and is trading at $0.059317 at the time of writing.
Coinbase announced that it received a warning from the SEC
Coinbase, the largest US cryptocurrency exchange, announced that it has received a warning notice from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In a blog post by Coinbase, he said the warning notice sent by the SEC pertains to Coinbase Wallet and Coinbase Earn.
“We are sorry to share that today, after a botched investigation, the SEC has sent us a Wells notice regarding our staking services Coinbase Earn, Coinbase Prime, and Coinbase Wallet. This is not a formal accusation or lawsuit, rest assured. Coinbase products and services continue to operate as usual”
SEC’s new target is Coinbase
A Wells statement is a document that the regulator sends to organizations under investigation. While this does not imply a definitive legal process, it does not imply an action abandoned.
The company defended itself by stating that the Wells statement did not provide clear information for them. In particular, he stated that SEC officials were asked which assets were securities, but they did not receive a response.
Paul Grewal, Coinbase’s Chief Legal Officer, used the following statements in his statement:
“We are prepared for the outcome of this disappointing situation. We are confident that our assets and services are legitimate”
FTX will reclaim $404M transferred to Modulo
According to Bloomberg’s report, FTX Group will reclaim $404 million transferred to Modulo Capital, Sam Bankman-Fried’s investment fund, as part of the bankruptcy agreement.
This deal is the last of the assets FTX is trying to gather to reimburse its customers. The new management of FTX is trying to overcome the problems caused by Sam Bankman-Fried and his team.
FTX buys back assets
Modulo Capital, led by Xiaoyun Zhang and Duncan Rheingans-Yoo, received $475 million in funding from the exchange a year before FTX went bankrupt, according to the settlement concluded at a bankruptcy hearing in Delaware. According to FTX’s statement, Modulo Capital said it had no more assets to pay back.
This settlement, made according to court records, avoids a potential lawsuit in which Madulo would suffer further damage.
For the settlement to become official, it must be approved by bankruptcy judge John Dorsey.
However, FTX also wants to sell some of its affiliates to get hot money. Many institutions, including the Miami International Stock Exchange, have submitted bids for LedgerX, one of the company’s leading platforms. An auction will be held for LedgerX on April 4, 2023.