Spent 260,000 to settle the SEC accusation, the rating agency black box operation was exposed

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a notice showing that cryptocurrency rating agency ICO Rating agreed to pay $269,000 to settle a settlement with the SEC. Earlier, the SEC alleged that ICO Rating did not disclose the compensation paid for the rating recommendation of the cryptocurrency project party.

According to ICO Rating's official website, it claims to be “a rating agency that publishes independent analysis and research reports on the encryption market” and stated that its mission is “to provide accurate and objective analysis of the encryption market to help the market provide quality and transparency. A reliable evaluation criteria. However, the SEC found in the survey that during the period from late 2017 to July 2018, ICO Rating paid for the release of ICO rating reports for certain project parties and published reports through its main network and social media channels. Rating, and then promote the project. The SEC found that ICO Rating directly or indirectly charged a $10.05.72 project recommendation fee.

The SEC stated that ICORating violated the anti-pedaling rules of Section 17(b) of the Securities Act of 1933, which requires that “anyone, using any means of transportation, means of communication or tools in interstate commerce, or by post, Promote or disseminate any notice, circular, advertisement, newspaper, article, letter, investment service or communication, even if there is no intention to sell the securities, describe the securities directly or indirectly from the issuer, underwriter or securities firm Remuneration, and insufficient disclosure of past or future remuneration and the amount of the amount, is illegal."

Melissa Hodgman, deputy director of the SEC's law enforcement department, added: "The securities law requires sponsors (including individuals and entities) to disclose the rewards they receive for the project's publicity in order to inform potential investors that they are browsing for paid recommendations. A requirement applies not only to securities issued using traditional certificates, but also to securities issued on the blockchain."

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In response to this, in order to withdraw the SEC's allegations against it, ICO Rating agreed to pay a project recommendation fee of $10,072,000, a pre-judgment interest of $6,626, and a civil penalty of $162,000. After the settlement, ICO Rating's company employees will be exempt from SEC allegations.

ICORating has evaluated 135 centralized cryptocurrency exchanges from four dimensions: account security, domain name and registration security, website security and DoS attack protection. According to the report, Kraken and Cabinhood are the exchanges with A rating; KuCoin ranks 18th with A- rating; Bibox ranks 23rd with B+; Binan Binance ranks 34th with B+ rating. OKEx and Firecoin are not among the top 50, ranking 59 and 94 respectively. ZB.COM ranks 95th with a rating of C+; BitForex ranks 103 with a rating of C+; CoinTige ranks 108 with a rating of C+.

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