TL;DR Breakdown
- CFTChas fired charges to 14 cryto firms for failing to register.
- BinanceFxTrade among entities queried by regulator.
- CFTC warns investors against patronizing unregistered platforms.
Fourteen crypto firms have been issued a cease and desist order in the United States of America by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
The crypto firms, including the Binance exchange, were hit with the warning for failing to register as Futures Commission Merchants (FCMs) as directed in the crypto policy framework by the commission.
The CFTC also warned crypto firms that made false claims of having CFTC registration and National Futures Association (NFA) membership. In the notice, the CFTC told crypto firms to cease and desist from violating the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations.
A top official of the commission described the move as aggressively rooting out bad actors with false claims of being registered.
“Today’s actions reflect the CFTC’s dedicated efforts to aggressively root out bad actors falsely claiming to hold legitimate registrations and protect the trading public,” said Division of Enforcement Acting Director Vincent McGonagle.
Two categories of crypto firms CFTC issued warning
The crypto firms the regulatory body warned were divided into two.
12 out of the 14 firms were warned for actively providing FCM services like facilitating users to purchase binary options based on the value of commodities like foreign currencies and cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, and further allowing users to transfer funds to them.
The firms CFTC warned for this are Tradingforexpay, Cryptofxtrader, Bitfxprofit, Globalnationfx, BinanceFxTrade, MaxForexOption, ProCryptoMinners, ProFX-Capitals, Smarter Signals, Prime Expert Trade, Star Fx Pro, and Excotradeoptions.
The other two firms, Climax Capital FX, and Digitalexchange24.com were warned for offering services related to trading in futures or other derivative products and falsely claimed registration with the CFTC and member of the National Futures Association (NFA).
CFTC sends warning to crypto investors
Investors were not spared in the rant by the American regulator. They told crypto investors to verify a company’s CFTC registration before making any short- or long-term financial commitments.
The commission said the firm’s registration status could be found using NFA BASIC.