WASHINGTON, D.C. — Unicoin CEO Alex Konanykhin stated he is requested the U.S. Securities and Alternate Fee to drag its investigation in opposition to the crypto operation and hasn’t but obtained a response.
Unicoin represented a remaining shot in opposition to the trade from earlier Chair Gary Gensler’s SEC, which knowledgeable the agency in an official discover late final yr that the regulator meant to accuse it of fraud, misleading practices and dealing with unregistered securities. The investigation was introduced within the remaining days of President Joe Biden’s administration in December, earlier than the SEC’s management was taken over by these chosen by crypto fan President Donald Trump.
The CEO, who has watched a dozen different crypto firms let off the hook of their enforcement actions by the company’s new administration, instructed CoinDesk he wrote a March 17 letter to the company’s new Crypto Job Power, asking concerning the investigation.
“I seek your guidance on the best way to address this abuse of power and bring it to an end,” Konanykhin wrote within the letter, a replica of which has been reviewed by CoinDesk. He requested the matter be terminated and that the conduct of the enforcement official concerned with the case on the company be reviewed, due to his “willingness to weaponize the SEC’s authority for political purposes.”
A spokesperson for the SEC declined to touch upon Unicoin’s standing on Wednesday. A Unicoin spokesperson instructed CoinDesk on Tuesday that the corporate “remains in the final stages of the SEC review process. As of now, we have not received any new updates or formal feedback from the SEC regarding our registration. We are fully committed to compliance and transparency, and we continue to work toward securing the necessary approvals for our planned offerings.”
The CEO believes his firm, which suggests buyers can see as much as 8,000% returns, was focused by company harassment final yr, he stated in an interview with CoinDesk in Washington.
“They demanded from us to promise not to go public in the United States, not to ICO, not to raise funds,” he stated. “So I packed my bags and moved to Europe to resume business.”
He stated the election of Trump and the president’s guarantees to make the U.S. the worldwide crypto capital made him come again to New York from Switzerland, with an intent to go public right here.
“We thought the war was over, and we said to the SEC, ‘Hey, we’re resuming our activity,” Konanykhin stated. At that time, the company introduced it meant to focus on the corporate with civil fees.
Konanykhin famous that the regulator had accused them of violating securities legal guidelines with an airdrop. Konanykhin argued that it is a frequent advertising and marketing technique seen in lots of crypto belongings, and is “what the president of the United States is doing with his memecoin.”
“It’s embarrassing that the war on crypto still continues,” he stated. If the company continues its struggle on crypto by pursuing Unicoin, “I think so many observers are going to be astonished.”
Unicoin began as an effort to create a “more transparent and reliable alternative” to Bitcoin within the U.S. (which, the Unicoin web site stated, has returned 9 million % to buyers during the last 10 years). He stated some analysts consider bitcoin was “created by Chinese intelligence, but nobody really knows by whom.”
“I’m elated by the opportunity to participate in making American the crypto capital of the planet as the president pledged he wants to do, even though it’s highly annoying to still have the legacy persecution from the SEC,” Konanykhin stated.
In the meantime, he stated, “we are preparing actively for going public.”
