The SEC fined the Quantstamp exchange almost $3.5 million
Date: 2023-07-27 Author: Karina Ziganova Categories: BUSINESS
The exchange regulator believes that Quanstamp violated the securities law when it raised $28.3 million through the initial offering of QSP tokens
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has fined crypto exchange Quantstamp $3,473,515 for violating securities law. The regulator published the resolution on its official website.
The SEC ruling states that Quantstamp violated the law when it raised over $28.3 million to develop an automated audit smart contract through the sale of QSP tokens. The token itself does not give any rights to manage the smart contract, the SEC stressed.
The exchange launched the protocol in March 2018, but in the summer of 2019 it curtailed its support. The regulator notes that the exchange advertised the sale of the token in the United States. At the same time, the exchange directly pointed to the success of the token in the event of a successful business of the company.
In total, Quantstamp managed to attract investments from 5,000 investors in the form of ether (ETH) and the US dollar, the document says. The exchange regulator added that among American investors, Quantstamp did not even try to find out their accreditation status, although after the distribution of tokens in the exchange, they still tried to do so.
The Quantstamp exchange began distributing QSP tokens in the Ethereum ecosystem in November 2017. The trading platform has saved about 35% of the token supply, the SEC noted. At the time of writing, Quantstamp has not commented on the fine. According to SEC documents, the exchange agreed to pay the fine, but did not admit the accusations of violating the securities law.
