Did US Regulators Began Offensive Against Crypto Platforms? CFTC Fines Kraken

One of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges, Kraken, received a $1.25M fine. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission imposed the “civil monetary penalty” plus a cease and desist from “further violations of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA)” on September the 28th. According to the CFTC, Kraken provided margin for commodity transactions to retail clients in the U.S. who were not suitable to use those products. Related Reading | How the CFTC fine on Coinbase could affect future crypto company listing The fine, however, seems like a slap on the wrist for a gargantuan company like Kraken. They’re a private company and their annual revenue is not on the public domain, but they raised $100M at a $4B valuation in 2019. And, reportedly, Kraken was seeking a $20B valuation this year following an IPO that didn’t happen. For a company that size, a $1.25M fine is not much, but maybe the punishment just fits the violation. ETH price chart on Kraken | Source: ETH/USD on TradingView.com What Did Kraken Do Exactly? The violation occurred between June 2020 and July 2021 approximately. During that period, “Kraken illegally operated as an unregistered FCM.” And, what did the unregistered futures commission merchant offer? Well, U.S. customers could acquire digital assets using margin, and Kraken provided said asset or the fiat money “to pay the seller for the asset.” Of course, users had to provide collateral and pay for the received as...