Editors Note: This article comes fromCointelegraph Chinese (ID: CointelegraphChina), Author: ANDREY SHEVCHENKO, reprinted with authorization by Odaily.
Editors Note: This article comes from
Cointelegraph Chinese (ID: CointelegraphChina)
Cointelegraph Chinese (ID: CointelegraphChina)
, Author: ANDREY SHEVCHENKO, reprinted with authorization by Odaily.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have jointly fined cryptocurrency portfolio app Abra, which allows users to gain synthetic exposure to traditional markets.
In addition to not trading on a registered national exchange, Abra offered securities-type swap transactions to retail investors who were not properly registered, according to the SEC statement.
Abra offers a “centralized” synthetic asset where users can gain exposure to traditional securities such as stocks by providing Bitcoin (BTC) and Litecoin (LTC) as collateral. The system reduces or increases tokens based on the rise or fall of the underlying security.
Based on the SECs findings, the feature was rolled out to all users, including in the United States, in February 2019. After a conversation with SEC staff, Abra quickly discontinued the feature. However, they relaunched the feature in May 2019, this time barring US residents from participating.
That doesnt seem like enough to avoid censorship. Despite moving some of its operations to the Philippines, Abras staff in California designed, marketed and hedged the contracts, while also screening approved users.
