Robinhood, a broker that includes cryptocurrencies in its portfolio, reported this Monday (06) that it received a Wells Notice from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), signaling that the regulatory body may take enforcement action against the company .
In a post on its blog, Robinhood announced that the warning was directed to its cryptocurrency-focused unit, Robinhood Crypto (RHC).
In the note, Robinhood criticized the SEC and said it was disappointed with the situation, stating that it has always tried to collaborate with the regulatory agency to bring more regulatory clarity to the digital assets sector.
“After years of good faith attempts to work with the SEC to achieve regulatory clarity, including our well-known ‘go and register’ attempt, we are disappointed that the agency has decided to issue a Wells Notice related to our U.S. cryptocurrency business,” said Dan Gallagher, Chief Legal, Compliance and Corporate Affairs Officer at Robinhood Markets, Inc.
SEC goes after Robinhood Crypto
As Gallagher highlighted, Robinhood believes that the assets listed on its platform are not securities. In this regard, the broker hopes to interact with the SEC to make clear “how weak any case against Robinhood Crypto is.”
Robinhood also highlighted that its cryptocurrency unit made difficult decisions not to list certain tokens or provide products, such as lending and staking, that the SEC previously alleged were securities in public actions against other platforms. Additionally, Robinhood responded to the SEC’s calls and attempted to register a special purpose brokerage with the agency.
Finally, the company said that, for its customers, this development will not affect their account or the services it provides.
“Robinhood Crypto is here to stay and we will continue to innovate, ship products and fight for regulatory clarity for the good of the industry and our customers,” he concluded.
This is just another case where the SEC “attacks” the cryptocurrency sector in the US. As CriptoFácil reported, in April this year the regulator also issued a Wells warning to the decentralized exchange Uniswap.
“It has been clear for some time that rather than working to create clear and informed rules, the SEC has decided to focus on attacking long-standing good players like Uniswap and Coinbase,” said Uniswap founder Hayden Adams on era.
The SEC has also opened cases against Binance, Coinbase and other prominent players in the crypto sector.
Source: https://www.criptofacil.com/robinhood-crypto-recebe-notificacao-de-processo-da-sec/
