In an episode of BNR Beleggerspanel, Mary Pieterse-Bloem, Professor of Financial Markets at Erasmus School of Economics, talks about recent events in the US crypto world. Namely, major crypto service providers Gemini and Genesis are being taken to court by the US SEC.
Crypto service providers Gemini and Genesis allegedly illegally siphoned off 900 million dollars from hundreds of thousands of investors through a programme run by Gemini, a subsidiary of Genesis. Gemini set up a project, Gemini Earn, in which consumers could lend their crypto coins to the platform for attractive returns. With such attractive returns, consumers themselves should be able to assess the risks involved. However, the SEC accuses the companies of insufficiently explaining the risks. Moreover, the SEC bases their charges on the fact that unregistered securities were offered, Pieterse-Bloem said.
The lawsuit against Gemini and Genesis could also end badly for Dutch company Bitvavo. This is because the Dutch company will still receive more than €250 million from Genesis. So should the lawsuit end in fines, it could also end badly for Bitvavo, the Professor said.
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You can listen to the full episode from BNR Beleggerspanel, 17 January 2023, here.
