ZB Academy：SEC cracks down on multiple projects
The actions of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the past two days have been quite a few, which aroused close attention of the entire industry. In less than a week, the SEC penalized two blockchain projects. In addition, personnel changes within the SEC have also triggered various speculations about the prospects of blockchain projects. Before that, let’s take a look at today’s market briefing.
According to ZB.com’s official market data, Bitcoin is currently quoted at $23,633, a 24-hour increase of 2.9%, and the highest 24-hour price is $23,828. XRP is currently reported at $0.3366, a 24-hour increase of 25.1%, and the highest price in a 24-hour period is $0.3778.
On Monday, the SEC ordered a fast-growing supply chain startup ShipChain to cease operations and imposed a fine of $2.05 million for its 2017 ICO (initial coin offering) tokens that raised $27.6 million in violation of securities laws. The company agreed to fines and quickly resolved the lawsuit. According to the content of the penalty order, the amount of the fine is equivalent to the company’s entire net assets, and the company is required to further cease all business. ShipChain tried to build an automatic account book for international trade on the Ethereum blockchain. From the end of 2017 to the beginning of 2018, it sold 145 million SHIP tokens to more than 200 investors. An early project white paper explained that the proceeds will power research, development, marketing, basic laws, and all operations. This has caused dissatisfaction with US securities regulators. Soon after the ICO ended, South Carolina’s securities regulator ordered ShipChain to cease operations. The company was accused of violating state law for the ship as an unregistered guarantee. But ShipChain fought back, and South Carolina finally abandoned the case, allowing the project to continue.
On Wednesday, the SEC determined that Ripple Labs’ sale of XRP cryptocurrency to retail investors violated the federal securities laws. According to a lawsuit filed by the SEC, Ripple has raised $1.3 billion from retail investors in seven years by continuing to sell Ripple (XRP). Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse announced earlier that the SEC has notified Ripple of the upcoming lawsuit and issued a response from Wells Fargo, aiming to clarify to the SEC that certain activities did not violate US securities laws. The San Francisco-based financial technology company has long insisted that XRP is independent of Ripple. At the beginning of 2018, this cryptocurrency was often referred to as ripple and shared a logo with the company until the end of 2018. The litigation documents stated that Ripple raised at least $1.38 billion in funds through the sale of Ripple during the unregistered securities issuance that lasted several years, but did not provide a registration statement and subsequent regular and usual financial and management information.
In the early hours of this morning, according to a tweet posted by SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, Elad Roisman was appointed as the acting chairman of the SEC. Roisman was appointed as SEC Commissioner by Trump two years ago. The industry generally believes that Roisman is friendly to cryptocurrencies. After all, he served as the chief legal counsel of NYSE Euronext, which was eventually sold to Bakkt Futures Exchange’s parent company ICE (Intercontinental Exchange). When appointed to the SEC, Roisman told the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee that “the SEC must repeatedly review its rules, regulations and guidelines to ensure that they can still fulfill the SEC’s mission as expected.” This has recently been manifested in the fields of data protection, network security, initial coin offerings, and blockchain.
About ZB Group
ZB Group was founded in 2012 with the goal of providing leadership to the blockchain development space and today manages a network that includes digital assets exchanges, wallets, capital ventures, research institutes, and media. The Group’s flagship platform is ZB.com, the industry leading digital asset exchange. The platform launched in early 2013 and boasts one of the world’s largest trading communities.
ZB Group also includes ZBG the innovative crypto trading platform, and BW.com, the world’s first mining-pool based exchange. Other holdings include wallet leader BitBank.
Industry intelligence and standards are headed by the recently launched ZB Nexus who embody the core values of ZB Group and open-source their reports and analysis for the public.
Learn more about ZB Group by visiting www.zb.com.
