The SEC alleged in its complaint, which was filed in a U.S. district court in Washington, that Shihara coordinated with crypto asset issuers seeking to make their tokens available for trading on Bittrex’s platform to delete public statements that Shihara believed would lead regulators to investigate those token offerings as securities.
The SEC also charged Bittrex’s foreign affiliate, Bittrex Global GmbH, for failing to register as a national securities exchange in connection with its operation of a single shared order book along with Bittrex.
Shihara declined to respond to a request for comment.
Bittrex Inc said in a statement that securities were not offered or traded on its platform and that it did not offer products that were investment contracts.
In a separate statement, Bittrex Global said it has no U.S. customers and plans to “vigorously defend” the SEC’s allegations in court.
“Bittrex Global was founded upon principles…
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