The B-Side of SEC Crypto Regulation: The Fantastic Story of the Prometheus Exchange

Author: NingNing, independent analyst. Source: Author Twitter NingNing @0xNing0x

An exchange funded and incubated by Chinese capital (Vientiane Blockchain, Hashkey); an exchange whose core team members are mainly former employees of SEC and FINRA; a shell exchange that has no actual business operations since its establishment in 2017—— It is the Prometheus Exchange.

However, it has the ambition to monopolize the encryption transactions in the United States. In the past two days, it has broken the defense of the encryption circle in the United States.

What happened is this: Recently, the SEC launched a new round of intensive regulatory actions against the encryption industry in the name of protecting investors, including suing Binance and Coinbase, and defining tokens such as $SOL, $MATIC, and $ADA as securities. But at this moment, when the lingering sound of this round of regulatory actions has not yet settled, Aron Kaplan, CEO of the Prometheus Exchange, appeared majestically at a hearing on the encryption industry in the US Congress, and followed the cheat sheet prepared in advance with Democratic congressmen. Ask me to answer, staged a good show. The purpose of their acting is to try to convince members of Congress and the public that tokens defined as securities by the SEC should only be traded on licensed and compliant security token exchanges (ATS) in the future. Traded on the Prometheus Exchange.

This makes the SEC's regulatory actions look a bit sour: from a just move to protect crypto investors, it becomes more like clearing out competitors and benefit transfers for the Prometheus exchange. As a result, the U.S. encryption circle has set off a "dung removal campaign" against the Prometheus exchange in the past two days. I don't know if I don't pick it up, I'm shocked when I pick it up. The Prometheus Exchange scandals mentioned at the beginning have been exposed one after another.

However, the Prometheus Exchange ignored the questioning remarks of the American encryption circle, and only sent a tweet on June 13 as a side response. Twitter wrote: There is a path forward for U.S. digital assets through the current regulatory framework established by the U.S. Federal Securities Act.

The translation is: Don’t try to introduce new laws that specifically apply to digital assets/cryptocurrency, and honestly learn from me and apply for compliance licenses from the SEC and FINRA. Of course, it is impossible for you to get a license.