Bittrex Wants Its $24 Million Settlement Back, Now That the SEC Is Pro-Crypto

Crypto speech Bittrex, which ceased operations aft settling an SEC suit nether President Joe Biden’s administration, is present requesting the statement beryllium tossed successful airy of the regulator’s about-face connected crypto.

In a caller filing this week, attorneys representing the speech asked a national justice to vacate his anterior judgement and compel the SEC to refund the $24 cardinal Bittrex paid the regulator arsenic a punishment backmost successful 2023.

Under the Biden administration, the SEC sued Bittrex for offering the merchantability of crypto tokens it deemed to beryllium illegally unregistered securities. The Seattle-based speech yet settled, agreeing to wage $24 cardinal successful penalties. That statement came a twelvemonth aft Bittrex agreed to wage the Treasury Department $29 cardinal for “apparent violations” of sanctions against nations including Iran, Cuba, and Syria.

Shortly thereafter, Bittrex shut down, saying it was not “economically viable” to proceed operating successful the “current U.S. regulatory and economical environment.”

Since President Donald Trump’s instrumentality to powerfulness past year, however, the SEC has radically shifted its attack to crypto. The agency’s enactment has repeatedly emphasized that it does not presumption the immense bulk of crypto tokens arsenic securities, and has besides dropped astir each suit it had filed against crypto companies and exchanges.

Now, Bittrex’s attorneys are arguing it would lone beryllium just for the erstwhile speech to person immoderate benefits from the SEC’s alteration of heart. 

“Two-and-a-half years aft extracting a colony from a bankrupt cryptocurrency speech premised connected the ineligible mentation that the tokens that traded connected the speech were securities, the SEC has (a) conceded that its ineligible mentation was incorrect and those tokens were not securities, (b) acknowledged that its enforcement strategy was misguided from the start, and (c) dropped each akin lawsuit and probe except this one,” Bittrex’s attorneys wrote successful Monday’s question to vacate.

The filing besides states that, successful March, the Trump SEC moved to forfeit Bittrex’s $24 cardinal to the Treasury Department, to administer to erstwhile customers who suffered fiscal harm.

The company’s attorneys are present urging the case’s justice to bid the funds returned to Bittrex earlier the funds are disbursed.

An SEC spokesperson declined to remark connected the lawsuit erstwhile reached by Decrypt.