The US SEC, which has been closely monitoring the violations in the cryptocurrency markets, continues its investigations in 2023. In the latest budget meeting, Gensler, who requested millions of dollars for a larger team, has now announced a new investigation. The announcement made on the SEC’s website focused on advertising violations.
SEC Crypto Penalty
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced today that it has charged Titan Global Capital Management, a New York-based FinTech investment advisor, with using misleading performance measurements in its advertisements. SEC also accused Titan of compliance errors, including misleading statements regarding the custody of clients’ crypto assets and the use of inappropriate “hedge clauses” in customer contracts.
According to SEC’s decision, Titan, which offers multiple complex strategies to individual investors through its mobile trading application, claimed to have made a 2700% profit from August 2021 to October 2022. SEC argued that these figures were not true.
“While providing and marketing complex strategies, investment advisors must ensure the accuracy of the statements made to current and potential investors. The Commission has changed the marketing rule to allow the use of hypothetical performance measures, but only if advisors comply with reasonably designed requirements to prevent fraud. Titan’s advertisements and statements painted a misleading picture of some strategies for investors. This action serves as a warning for all advisors to ensure compliance.”
Titan cooperated in the investigation and consented to SEC’s determination that it violated the Advisers Act. Titan will pay a total of $1,042,000 in fines without admitting or denying SEC’s findings.
SEC may open investigations into more trading services in the coming days.
