CFTC Charges 14 Trading Platforms Offering Crypto-Related Investments

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has charged 14 trading platforms that claim to offer crypto-related investments but have either failed to register with the CFTC or falsely claimed to be registered. These websites also exhibit other signs of being scams.

14 Entities Charged by CFTC

After charging major cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has now gone after trading platforms claiming to offer crypto-related investments.

The CFTC announced Wednesday that it has “filed charges against 14 entities for either failing to register as futures commission merchants (FCMs) or else making false and misleading claims of having CFTC registration and National Futures Association (NFA) membership.”

Most of the 14 trading platforms exhibit signs of scams, such as using identical websites, asking users to pay to join the platforms before they can start trading, claiming to be regulated, and guaranteeing huge returns. For example, some of the 14 websites display this message: “Earn huge return on investment. With our professional team of traders, you are guaranteed of your earnings.”

The derivatives watchdog detailed:

Twelve of the complaints allege that the entities are acting as FCMs by offering to the general public the opportunity to purchase binary options based off the value of commodities like foreign currencies and cryptocurrencies including bitcoin.

These platforms “encourage customers to transfer money or assets to them,” but none of them have registered as an FCM, the regulator said.

Among the 12 platforms, Tradingforexpay, Bitfxprofit, Globalnationfx, Binancefxtrade, Maxforexoption, and Excotradeoptions have almost identical websites. Three more — Cryptofxtrader, Smarter Signals, and Prime Expert Trade — look nearly identical. Procryptominners’ website is now offline. Two other platforms are Profx-Capitals and Star Fx Pro.

Besides the 12 platforms, the CFTC states that Climax Capital FX and Digitalexchange24.com “offer services related to trading in futures or other derivative products and falsely claim to be registered with the CFTC and a member of NFA.”

The two platforms’ websites also look very similar, each stating that it “offers a variety of services to its customers in connection with trading forex and cryptocurrencies like bitcoin that are commodities in interstate commerce.”

The CFTC detailed: “Each complaint seeks orders directing the entities to cease and desist from committing violations of the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations as charged.”

Division of Enforcement Acting Director Vincent McGonagle commented:

Today’s actions reflect the CFTC’s dedicated efforts to aggressively root out bad actors falsely claiming to hold legitimate registrations and protect the trading public.

What do you think about the CFTC going after these trading platforms? Let us know in the comments section below.