The New York Attorney General targeted five cryptocurrency companies, 2 lending platforms ordered to shut down.

New York Attorney General Letitia James has ordered the shutdown of two cryptocurrency loan sites and has asked three additional companies to respond to concerns about their activity as soon as possible. According to the letters to the firms published on the attorney general’s website, the two platforms are Nexo and Celsius Network.

Letitia James, the New York Attorney General (NYAG), revealed on Monday her new attempts to crack down on unregistered cryptocurrency firms.

To operate in New York or sell goods to its citizens, lending platforms must register with the Office of the Attorney General (OAG). Details of the announcement:

Today, Attorney General James directed two of these lending platforms to immediately cease their unregistered and unlawful activities in New York and directed three other platforms to immediately provide information about their activities and products.

The notification describes the crypto financing platforms  “are essentially interest-bearing accounts that offer investors a rate of return on virtual currencies that are deposited with them.”

The Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States considers loan products to be securities as well. Gary Gensler, Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, recently informed bitcoin exchange Coinbase that its Lend products were securities.

The NYAG website also released stop and desist letters to the two lending sites. Despite the fact that the letters were redacted, the file names showed that they were sent to Nexo and Celsius Network. Three additional businesses got a letter inquiring about their operations.

Attorney General James stated:

Cryptocurrency platforms must follow the law, just like everyone else, which is why we are now directing two crypto companies to shut down and forcing three more to answer questions immediately.

After launching a lawsuit against the firm earlier this year, Attorney General James shut down the cryptocurrency trading website Coinseed last month. She announced a deal with Bitfinex, Tether, and affiliated organizations in February that terminated their trading activities in New York and levied a $18.5 million penalty on the firms.

Patrick

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