SEC Sues Crypto Exchange Bittrex Shortly After It Announces It’s Leaving U.S. Markets

April 20, 2023

The SEC seems to believe that all crypto exchanges are unregistered security dealers and inherently breaking the law.

by Brian Doherty Reason.com

At the end of March, a long-lasting and prominent cryptocurrency exchange, Bittrex, announced it would no longer do business with U.S. citizens because “it’s just not economically viable for us to continue to operate in the current U.S. regulatory and economic environment.”

Then on Monday, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) hit Bittrex with a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in the Western District of Washington.

Among the charges: “Bittrex has been operating as an unregistered broker (including by soliciting potential investors, handling customer funds and assets, and charging a fee for these services) and an unregistered clearing agency (including by holding its customers’ assets in Bittrex-controlled wallets and settling its customers’ transactions by debiting and crediting the relevant customer accounts).