BarnBridge DAO, the community behind a DeFi protocol, and its founders have agreed to pay over $1.7 million as a settlement fine to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over alleged violations of securities laws. Impressively, the news has no impact on the community’s native cryptocurrency, BOND.
Founded in 2019 by Tyler Ward and Troy Murray, BarnBridge was launched as a platform that allows users to tokenize risks associated with DeFi and asset price volatility.
One of its flagship products is SMART Yield, which facilitates leveraged or fixed variable yields on stablecoin deposits made into the lending protocols. The product features senior and junior SMART Yield bonds, which users can buy.
BarnBridge to Pay Over $1.7M
According to the U.S. SEC, BarnBridge and its founders failed to register the project and its financial products, such as the SMART Yield bond. The project is also charged for facilitating the unregistered “BarnBridge’s SMART Yield pools.”
The financial agency added that BarnBridge had generated more than $509 million from investors and fees from trades and other investments.
Both founders were individually charged a fine of $125,000, while the protocol received a $1.5 million fine. Without agreeing or denying the allegations, the project and its founders agreed to the settlement.
This is not the first time the SEC will penalize a crypto-related project. In September, the regulatory watchdog charged an NFT project, Stoner Cats, a $1 million fine for breaking securities rules.
Commenting on how the agency intends to clamp down on more similar projects, Gurbir S. Grewal, an SEC official, said:
“This case serves as an important reminder that those laws apply to all who wish to access our capital markets, regardless of whether they are, or purport to be, incorporated, decentralized or autonomous.”
BOND Trades at $3.8
Despite the news, the Ethereum-based BOND token continues to maintain an uptrend. At the time of writing, the asset traded at $3.88, representing a mild 4.3% over the past 24 hours.
Source: CoinStats
