1Broker Shut Down, Will More Bitcoin Exchanges be Targeted by US Gov’t?
1Broker, a Marshall Islands-based securities dealer and bitcoin trading platform, was recently taken down by the US authorities. The FBI seized the domain of 1Broker, shutting down the platform for allegedly violating money laundering regulations and distributing securities as an unregistered dealer. The official announcement of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) read: “The SEC alleges that a Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, acting in an undercover capacity, successfully purchased several security-based swaps on 1Broker’s platform from the U.S. despite not meeting the discretionary investment thresholds required by the federal securities laws.” On Oct. 2, the 1Broker team released a statement on social media, stating that the company is working with a U.S. counsel and its legal team to represent 1Broker in the SEC/CFTC case to potentially recover the platform. “We are currently engaging U.S. counsel who can represent us in the SEC/CFTC case. We expect that this takes a few days. We received the green light from our lawyers to set up a read-only version 1Broker to view balances and transaction history. ETA: 48 hours,” the team said. Prior to that, on Sept. 27, 1Broker emphasized that it will cooperate with the authorities and with the SEC to partially re-enable the platform to allow withdrawals for its users.
