The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged crypto exchange platform, Poloniex, with operating an unregistered online digital asset exchange in breach of Section 5 of the Exchange Act. Poloniex allegedly offered trading of crypto assets deemed to be securities to U.S. investors on its platform between July 2017 and November 2019. As Poloniex met the definition of an “exchange” and offered trading of crypto assets that were securities, it was required to be registered as a national securities exchange or to operate under an exemption. The SEC order noted that Poloniex had decided to allow investors to trade crypto assets that might constitute securities under the Howey test which resulted in it operating an unregistered exchange.
