New York AG Orders Two Unregistered Crypto Lenders To Shut Down

New York Attorney General Letitia James on Monday ordered two unregistered cryptocurrency lending platforms to cease operating in the state within 10 days and requested three other platforms to send her office information about their activities and products. From a report: Due in part to a lack of clear regulations, crypto companies have been making various moves -- and finding out that not all regulators agree with them. James' office argued that virtual currency lending products are considered securities under the state's Martin Act, which requires companies offering such financial services to register with the attorney general's office in order to do business with New Yorkers.

Not named

[felixrising]

It's a bit annoying the respective lenders are not publicly named. To prevent collapse???

Re:

[phantomfive]

It was redacted by the attorney general office [ny.gov]. So we don't know which companies they are yet.

Re:

[quall]

I agree with the state. Right now it's just a private matter. If they don't comply then I'm sure it will be made public. If they do comply, then business as usual.

Re:

[CoolCash]

Rumors have it as Nexo and Celsius. Celsius always claims they are following the rules given to them. I suspect the AG might be making up some "new rules" to tag them in. When a company has $30 Billion in AUM, some banks might be mad they can't make that money. https://www.theblockcrypto.com... [theblockcrypto.com]

Re:

[whitroth]

Or, more reasonably, scum like you can hide their income, and avoid paying taxes on it... which was the whole point of cryptocurrency.

This is why

[phantomfive]

This is why Satoshi Nakamoto is still anonymous. A legal crush is coming, and the shrapnel could fly in any direction.

Re:

[Idimmu Xul]

https://www.getmonero.org/ [getmonero.org]
https://dero.io/ [dero.io]
https://www.equilibria.network... [www.equilibria.network]

Crypto is routing around government interference with anonymous, decentralised, secure crypto projects. Monero is a currency, Dero handles smart contracts and Equilibria will handle oracles for real world data.

With privacy, the government will no longer be able to interfere as they will not know who to send the letters to.

Re:

[phantomfive]

With privacy, the government will no longer be able to interfere as they will not know who to send the letters to.

It's easy: you arrest the person who converts it into cash.

Long term, I think the government has no chance to stop crypto-currency, but that doesn't mean they won't try. They went hard after Timothy Leary just because he was a figurehead, now MJ is becoming legal. Satoshi Nakamoto would be the same, and ambitious prosecutors would pat themselves on the back for figuring out a way to throw him in jail.

Re:

[whitroth]

"Interfere". As I said, above, it's bastards like you who pretend that you don't make use of things that taxes pay for - the roads, clean water, etc, and so you refuse to pay taxes.

I hope they catch you and jail you.

Re:

[gweihir]

This is why Satoshi Nakamoto is still anonymous. A legal crush is coming, and the shrapnel could fly in any direction.

Indeed. To anybody with half a clue, this is no surprise whatsoever. The only surprise is how long it took. But it looks like the ransomware criminals overplayed their hand significantly recently and focused more attention on themselves as is healthy. The usual story of greed and stupidity. They probably though they were criminal masterminds, but they are just the same losers that never managed to get large enough with their criminal business model before they made themselves more than a mere annoyance and

Re:

[phantomfive]

The only surprise is how long it took.

That is true, I thought it would go down in 2015 or so.

Re:

[gweihir]

The only surprise is how long it took.

That is true, I thought it would go down in 2015 or so.

Same here.

Don't do any business in NY or CA

[SuperKendall]

Stuff like this is why pretty much no business should operate in either CA or NY, the whole effort of government in either state either being to tax the hell out of you or rough you up for having the temerity to run a business there and provide value to people.

Re:

[quonset]

Stuff like this is why pretty much no business should operate in either CA or NY, the whole effort of government in either state either being to tax the hell out of you or rough you up for having the temerity to run a business there and provide value to people.

Sure, it's only CA or NY which require businesses to be registered to operate. No other state in the country requires businesses to be registered and adhere to certain rules and regulations. None whatosever.

Re: Don't do any business in NY or CA

[AcidFnTonic]

No they're just the only states complaining and throwing hissy-fits like toddlers.

Re:

[bloodhawk]

So what you are saying is other states don't enforce the laws and are much better for operating illegally?

Laws are, enforcement not.

[SuperKendall]

These laws or similar around finance and lending are pretty universal across ALL STATES.

The attorney generals of all the other states, are very much not.

Don't you yet grasp that laws are defined so that everyone is always breaking them, and you simply choose who to enforce them upon?

Re:

[bn-7bc]

Are youu shore they are designed that way, or is it just that they are rely complex and might interact with each other in unexpected. and therefore unintended ways? There are of course instances of a law being written to benefit a certain group, that probably disfavors another, and such laws need to be cleared out. I'm not reffering to the laws and/or regulations that requires a person tha (as an example) the offers legal services, to have a legal degree etc, it is obviously in everybody's interest that peo

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

what a conspiracy theory view of the world, must be hard living under a tin foil hat. FYI, most laws are not some big bad men in black suits conspiracy to get you, they are laws enacted to protect you from predatory scumbags, in this case they are to protect you from losing your money to scam artists that don't have the backing or regulation behind them to ensure your money is appropriately protected. like most laws it stems from other scumbag organisations like these exchanges exploiting people gullibility

Re:

[bn-7bc]

I would use a point to mod you up, you are on point. But unfortunately I've commented above, so this will have to do, keep the excellent comments coming

Re:

[bn-7bc]

I doubt the AJ has any beef with people operating financialk services (as in, but not limited, lending of any kind) as long as they are registered an indeed regulated as firms providing such services. What the AJ objects to is unregulated entities providing said services to the general public and maybe even presenting them selves as their regulated equivalents. But I'm just guessing here. I'm leaving the issue of taxes for later since that is obviously a rather inflammatory subject, and might rather quick

Re:

[MooseTick]

"no business should operate in either CA or NY"

True. They should operate in TX or FL where businesses have the freedom to makes decisions and operate as they wish. ...As long as they don't require customers to wear masks or employees to take vaccines during a pandemic that shut commerce down and killed more Americans that WWI & WWII combined.