February 9, 2023

Payward Ventures, Inc. and Payward Trading Ltd., better known as Kraken, has agreed to pay $30 million in disgorgement, prejudgment interest, and civil penalties for its failure to register the offer and sale of its crypto asset staking-as-a-service program.  Staking involves investors locking their crypto tokens with a blockchain validator; if the tokens then become used to validate data for the blockchain, their owners are rewarded with additional tokens.  According to the SEC, Kraken advertised its staking-as-a-service program as having annual investment returns of as much as 21%, but failed to properly register or disclose risks to investors.  SEC

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