In a recent development, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced a settlement with ShapeShift, a prominent crypto exchange, over allegations of failing to register as a dealer. The SEC revealed that ShapeShift had offered assets classified as securities between 2017 and 2019 without registering with the commission.
As part of the agreement, ShapeShift agreed to a cease-and-desist order and a $275,000 fine to settle the SEC’s claims. Following this news, ShapeShift’s token FOX experienced a decline of over 9%, dropping to $0.078, as reported by CoinMarketCap.
ShapeShift had previously announced plans to overhaul its business model in January 2021, which involved discontinuing direct crypto asset exchanges on its platform and no longer acting as the counterparty to customer transactions. By July of the same year, ShapeShift began winding down its corporate structure.
This decision was rooted in ShapeShift’s dedication to immutable, non-custodial decentralized finance, a core principle since its establishment. As a result, the exchange distributed more than 60% of its 1 billion FOX tokens to over one million clients.
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