Kraken charged for operating unregistered

On Monday, the Securities and Exchange Commission reported it has charged Payward Inc. and Payward Ventures Inc., together known as Kraken, with operating Kraken’s crypto trading platform as an unregistered securities exchange, broker, dealer, and clearing agency.

According to the SEC’s complaint, since at least September 2018, Kraken has made hundreds of millions of dollars unlawfully facilitating the buying and selling of crypto asset securities. The SEC alleges that Kraken intertwines the traditional services of an exchange, broker, dealer, and clearing agency without having registered any of those functions with the Commission as required by law. Kraken’s alleged failure to register these functions has deprived investors of significant protections, including inspection by the SEC, recordkeeping requirements, and safeguards against conflicts of interest, among others.

The SEC’s complaint also alleges that Kraken’s business practices, deficient internal controls, and poor recordkeeping practices present a range of risks for its customers. Kraken allegedly commingles its customers’ money with its own, including paying operational expenses directly from accounts that hold customer cash. Kraken also allegedly commingles its customers’ crypto assets with its own, creating what its own auditor had identified as “a significant risk of loss” to its customers.

In February of this year, Kraken agreed to cease offering or selling securities through crypto asset staking services or staking programs and pay a civil penalty of $30 million. [Editor's note: According to The Motley Fool, “staking” is the way many cryptocurrencies verify their transactions, and it allows participants to earn rewards on their holdings; crypto staking involves committing one's crypto assets to support a blockchain and confirm transactions.]