Effective 9:30am EST today, continuing through midnight 3 January 2018, “pursuant to Section 12(k) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, that trading in the securities of The Crypto Company is suspended,” the notice reads.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced “the public interest and the protection of investors require a suspension of trading in the securities of The Crypto Company.”
It’s the second time this year the SEC has gone after crypto-affiliated, publicly traded companies.
SEC Suspends The Crypto Company
According to the filing, “concerns regarding the accuracy and adequacy of information in the marketplace about, among other things, the compensation paid for promotion of the company, and statements in Commission filings about the plans of the company’s insiders to sell their shares of The Crypto Company’s common stock” have raised too many unanswered questions for the regulator.
In only one month’s time, its stock has risen more than 2,500 percent, and its executives were getting rich, potentially. Bloomberg pegs its president as holding “a stake valued at nearly $4.2 billion based on Monday’s closing price.”
The SEC filing continues, explaining questions “concerning potentially manipulative transactions in the company’s stock in November 2017” caused it to intervene.
A surf to the company’s investor page gave only a 404 message, Page Not Found. Otherwise, the site appears to be active, selling itself as a consulting, technology, and portfolio firm. It lists five team members who are “multi-disciplinary” and who understand “blockchain technologies.” The company purports to “deliver domain expertise to our clients, partners, portfolio companies and the broader investment community.”
Business Insider quotes CEO Mike Poutre defiantly claiming they “are fully reporting and get halted. SEC is sending the wrong message. We are working with counsel and will handle things appropriately,” he said.
This is at least the second example in 2017 of the SEC stepping-in after a public company affiliates with the crypto space. Back in August, another Nevada registered company, CIAO Group, Inc., raised the regulator’s hackles “concerning, among other things, the activities of the company with respect to business plans in the telecommunications industry and plans for an Initial Coin Offering or ICO,” leading to “the opinion that the public interest and the protection of investors require a suspension of trading in the securities” of CIAO Group, Inc.
Especially during the Year of Bitcoin, companies looking for a free ride on crypto-related hype better make doubly sure they’re in full compliance. They are being watched.
