After Ripple lawsuit, SEC settles charges for sale of nearly $500 million in unregistered securities

• SEC filed settled charges against Abra, a firm that runs a crypto lending business, for $500 million sale of unregistered securities. 
• In the Ripple case the Judge ruled that sale of XRP to institutions was  a securities violation, but Abra did not admit or deny charges.
• Pro-crypto attorney Bill Morgan says SEC is less likely to appeal the Ripple ruling, per recent developments. 

Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) settled charges against Abra, a crypto lending platform on August 26. This marks an important development in the crypto regulatory landscape since Abra did not admit or deny the regulator’s allegations and agreed to pay civil penalties determined by the court. 

In the Ripple lawsuit, the court determined that the payment remittance firm violated securities law through the sale of unregistered securities to institutional investors. Pro-crypto lawyers shared their thoughts on the likelihood of the regulator appealing the final ruling in the SEC vs. Ripple lawsuit. 

The difference between the two enforcement actions by the SEC shows what crypto traders in the US can expect from the changing regulatory landscape. 

Abra does not admit or deny SEC allegations, here’s what happened

Abra is a crypto platform that recently settled charges brought by the SEC, against its Abra Earn product. Starting 2020, the firm offered Abra Earn to customers and promised high returns in exchanges. 

The Abra Earn program had nearly $600 million in user assets, of which $500 million was from the US. The SEC’s press release states that Abra operated as an investment company without registration for at least two years. 

The press release reads:

To settle the Commission’s charges, Abra, without admitting or denying the SEC’s allegations, has consented to an injunction prohibiting it from violating the registration provisions of the Securities Act and the Investment Company Act and requiring it to pay civil penalties in amounts to be determined by the court.

The presiding judge in the SEC vs. Ripple lawsuit stated that the firm violated securities laws through institutional sales of XRP, unlike the SEC’s enforcement action against Abra. The firm has settled charges without admitting the allegations. Previously, Abra settled charges in 2020, and paid $150,000 each to the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and ended the investigation into its swaps product. 

SEC less likely to appeal Ripple ruling

Pro-crypto attorney Bill Morgan says that the SEC is less likely to appeal the final ruling in the Ripple lawsuit. Attorney Morgan notes that the judge is clear in the reasoning and compared the lawsuit with that of SEC lawsuits against Payward Inc. and Binance.