BlockFi will pay $100 million in a settlement with SEC and states over its interest accounts
BlockFi, a crypto finance institution, will pay $100 million in penalties to the Securities and Exchange Commission (or SEC) and 32 US states after it settled charges relating to its interest program (via The Block). Regulators say that the company’s BlockFi Interest Accounts, which let users earn returns on cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and USDT, were unregistered securities and that BlockFi wasn’t properly registered as an investment company.
BlockFi pitched its interest accounts as a way to earn “up to 9.25 percent” interest on crypto deposited into the account, though the percentage varied from month to month and was dependent on how much you had deposited. According to the SEC, because customers were technically lending...