Robinhood’s Crypto Unit Cleared as US SEC Wraps Up Investigation Without Action

The cryptocurrency unit of the American monetary companies firm Robinhood is now within the clear because the Securities and Trade Fee (SEC) has closed its investigation into the enterprise.

Based on a blog post by Robinhood, the SEC revealed in a letter dated February 21 that it had wrapped up its investigation into the agency’s crypto operations and didn’t intend to convey any enforcement motion in opposition to the corporate.

SEC Closes Investigation In opposition to Robinhood

Recall that the SEC hit Robinhood with a Wells Discover in Might 2024, indicating a risk of authorized motion over the agency’s alleged securities violations.

CryptoPotato reported that Robinhood had allegedly violated Sections 15(a) and 17A of the Securities Trade Act of 1934, which prohibited the corporate from inducing the sale of securities until registered with the SEC and defrauding prospects of their cash by means of materials omissions or misstatements.

Doable treatments for the fees, if filed, included disgorgement, civil cash penalties, a cease-and-desist order, and limitations on actions. The Wells Discover got here 15 months after the SEC sent an investigative subpoena to Robinhood concerning its crypto operations.

Whereas responding to the company’s actions final yr, Robinhood stated it was upset as a result of it had made makes an attempt to register its enterprise and adjust to the company’s laws. Regardless, the corporate insisted that the SEC’s case was weak as a result of the belongings on its platform weren’t securities.

Within the current weblog submit asserting the Fee’s newest determination, Robinhood maintained that it had made troublesome decisions to delist sure belongings labeled as securities beneath the previous SEC chair Gary Gensler, though it disagreed with the argument that almost all crypto transactions have been topic to federal securities legal guidelines.

Robinhood Maintains Innocence

However, the corporate acknowledged the transition from a interval of regulation by enforcement to a time of “regulation by regulation.” Crypto market members can be supplied with a transparent regulatory framework, as promised by President Donald Trump throughout his election marketing campaign.

“We applaud the workers’s determination to shut this investigation with no motion. Let me be crystal clear—this investigation by no means ought to have been opened. Robinhood Crypto at all times has and can at all times respect federal securities legal guidelines and by no means allowed transactions in securities,” Robinhood’s chief authorized officer Dan Gallagher stated, including “As we defined to the SEC, any case in opposition to Robinhood Crypto would have failed.”

In the meantime, Robinhood just isn’t the one crypto firm getting pardoned by the SEC. The securities company has paused its lawsuit in opposition to the crypto alternate Binance and intends to withdraw an analogous case in opposition to the buying and selling platform Coinbase.