Letitia James, the attorney general of New York State, filed a lawsuit against CoinEx, a cryptocurrency exchange, alleging that it marketed products and securities that were not authorized for sale in New York.
The complaint filed on Wednesday claims CoinEx did not register as an exchange with the United States. Before offering services in the state, one must first register with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, or the New York regulators, depending on whether one is a commodity broker.
James claims that four tokens—AMP, LBC, LUNA, and RLY—among the cryptocurrencies supplied by CoinEx are regarded as commodities and securities under the Martin Act, the securities law of New York.
Yet, the company describes itself as an exchange on its website and provides services that are comparable to those offered by national stock exchanges or other matching systems grants.
CoinEx also disobeyed the subpoena that was issued in January of this year. Attorney General James is suing CoinEx in an effort to get a judge to issue a judgment barring the company from claiming to be an exchange, prohibiting CoinEx from doing business in New York, and ordering CoinEx to implement IP address-based geoblocking and GPS location to restrict access to CoinEx Mobile Apps, websites, and services from New York.
Attorney General James' efforts to uphold New York laws in the cryptocurrency business and safeguard New York investors are continued by this action.
Attorney General James declared: "Our laws are intended to safeguard New Yorkers, and when firms disregard them, they endanger citizens, investors, and businesses." The day has passed when cryptocurrency firms like CoinEx would act as though the law did not apply to them. My office will continue to defend New York investors and watch over the observance of the law in our state.
