According to a recent announcement, the SEC today accepted a final judgment ordering Genesis Global Capital, LLC to pay a $21 million civil penalty and to impose a permanent injunction for offering and selling unregistered securities related to a crypto asset lending program known as the Gemini Earn program.
Comments from Authorities on the Genesis Case
According to the settlement, the SEC stated that no part of the penalty will be collected until all payments approved by the bankruptcy court, including claims of individual investors in the Gemini Earn program, have been made.
SEC Chairman Gary Gensler made the following statement:
We charged Genesis with failing to register its retail crypto lending product before offering it to the public and skipping the fundamental disclosure requirements designed to protect investors. Today’s settlement builds on previous actions to make it clear to the market and the investing public that crypto lending platforms and other intermediaries must comply with our time-tested securities laws. Doing so best protects investors. It promotes trust in the markets. This is not optional. It is the law.
Director of the SEC’s Enforcement Division Gurbir S. Grewal also said:
The collapse of the Gemini Earn program highlights the unknown risks investors face when market participants do not comply with federal securities laws. As this enforcement action clearly demonstrates, no amount of hype and advertising can substitute for the investor protection disclosures required by federal securities laws.
Current Bitcoin Situation
Following the development, attention turned to the price of Bitcoin (BTC). Amid the events, a downward trend continued to dominate Bitcoin’s price. BTC, which had lost its previous all-time high of $69,000, was trading at $63,300, down 7% at the time of writing.
The market capitalization of BTC had also fallen to $1.24 trillion. The 24-hour trading volume of BTC increased by 70% during this period, reaching $69 billion, indicating significant trading activity by investors.
