The securities division of South Carolina’s Office of the Attorney General has ended administrative actions against two cryptocurrency startups, documents published on Thursday showed. The state securities regulator decided to revise its previous orders against ShipChain and Genesis Mining after receiving information from the respondents.
In May, the division issued a cease-and-desist order against ShipChain, an Ethereum-based platform for tracking the shipment of goods. According to the regulator, the company offered tokens that were securities without being a registered broker-dealer. ShipChain rejected the accusations, saying it would respond to the Securities Commissioner although it had not been contacted by the relevant authorities.
“ShipChain does not believe that the [SHIP] tokens are securities. ShipChain is not aware that SHIPs were even offered in South Carolina or to any South Carolinian during the private sale,” ShipChain said.
Based on additional information it had received, the securities division vacated the order on Thursday.
On the same day, the regulator removed Genesis Mining as a respondent in a previous cease-and-desist order. In March, the securities division ordered the company to immediately stop offering mining contracts in South Carolina as they had not been registered as securities. Moreover, Genesis Mining was barred from selling securities in the state in the future. On Thursday, this measure was withdrawn and the company removed as a respondent in the order.
Genesis Mining praised the decision, saying that “engagement with regulators and in public policy is key to moving our industry forward.”
We're happy to announce that South Carolina vacated and dismissed @GenesisMining from its Cease and Desist order. As we previously said, engagement with regulators and in public policy is key to moving our industry forward >> https://t.co/edXGw9XuDW #GenesisMining #GMRadiantTech
— Genesis Mining (@GenesisMining) July 26, 2018
However, the securities division did not vacate the cease-and-desist order as there is a second respondent, Swiss Gold Global. The latter is still under investigation for offering mining contracts for Genesis Mining without being registered as a broker-dealer.
Under US laws, if a company offers securities, it must be registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which is the regulator on a federal level. For investment products that target one or several states, it is obligatory to have a registration with the respective state regulators.
This article appeared first on Cryptovest
