SEC files lawsuit against Bittrex for unregistered securities exchange operation

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex and its former CEO William Shihara with operating an unregistered national securities exchange, broker, and clearing agency. The SEC alleged that Shihara coordinated with crypto asset issuers seeking to make their tokens available for trading on Bittrex's platform to delete public statements that Shihara believed would lead regulators to investigate those token offerings as securities. Bittrex's foreign affiliate, Bittrex Global GmbH, was also charged for failing to register as a national securities exchange.