Unicoin CEO: Why Are We Still Under the SEC’s Gun?

Unicoin CEO Alex Konanykhin said he’s asked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to pull its investigation against the crypto operation and hasn’t yet received a response.

Unicoin represented a final shot against the industry from previous Chair Gary Gensler’s SEC, which informed the firm in an official notice late last year that the regulator intended to accuse it of fraud, deceptive practices and handling unregistered securities. The investigation was announced in the final days of President Joe Biden’s administration in December, before the SEC’s leadership was taken over by those selected by crypto fan President Donald Trump.

The CEO, who has watched a dozen other crypto companies let off the hook of their enforcement actions by the agency’s new management, told CoinDesk he wrote a March 17 letter to the agency’s new Crypto Task Force, asking about the investigation.

SEC Buyouts: 500+ Staffers Head for the Exits

The current commissioners have stressed that they want to make the SEC more responsive to public companies and those seeking to raise capital. For example, Commissioner Peirce has said that the SEC wants Corp Fin and OCA to engage more with public companies on difficult disclosure issues, and to communicate early and often on the timing of reviews of registration statements in order to permit issuers to have increased confidence in their offering timelines.

Those are great goals, but the agency needs lots of experienced people around if it is going to have any hope of achieving them. Right now, it looks like whether the SEC will have enough of those people to do that is an open question. In fact, it’s fair to ask just how limited the SEC’s capabilities might be once Musk finishes with them. […]

We’ll have to see how this all plays out, but the attrition at the SEC is a source of legitimate concern for public companies and the lawyers who advise them. It’s also incredibly ironic to think that an agency that actually makes money for the federal government may see budget cuts that jeopardize its ability to accomplish the laudable objectives that its commissioners have laid out.

Postcards from another Edge — at SIFMA

Attending a panel on “optimizing legal and compliance partnerships,” and my partner Steve Gannon made a very perceptive and actionable point. We are used to regulatory and enforcement shifts between Administrations — but this is a “paradigm shift.” Regardless of one’s views on the merits of the changes, the new Administration — through EOs and other organizational and structural changes — has put enforcement and oversight bodies on notice of their need to affirmatively justify their expectations and requirements, and in so doing has opened up and invited stakeholders to engage directly with the administration on these issues. There is an opportunity for offensive advocacy and not simply reactive defense.

Robinhood, Moving Beyond Meme Stocks, Now Wants to Be Your Bank

Robinhood Markets Inc. has moved past its meme stock days to become known as the go-to trading platform for retail investors of all stripes – crypto zealots, novice financiers and sophisticated speculators alike. Now it’s taking it a step further: It also wants to be your bank.

Robinhood will roll out checking and savings accounts later this year to its paying “Gold” subscribers, but with a few twists. The Menlo Park, California-based firm aims to be less of a traditional bank for its customers and more of a private banking-like experience, according to Deepak Rao, vice president and general manager of Robinhood Money. […]

The annual percentage yield on the high-yield savings account will likely hover around 4% when the product rolls out, customers will have access to estate planning and tax advice and clients will be able to request cash to be delivered to their doorstep that day via the app, according to a Wednesday statement. The last service is one that some legacy banks still have, but with a several-day lag time, Rao said in the interview.

TikTok meets Wall Street: This 23-year-old’s app lets you trade stocks like Nancy Pelosi and Warren Buffett

By allowing users to “copy trade” — that is, follow the successful financial moves of someone like Warren Buffett or Nancy Pelosi —Dub is betting that the future of finance will fuse social media with investing.

The company, started in 2021 by then 19-year-old Steven Wang, launched as the only regulated copy-trading platform in the United States that lets users mirror trades of politicians and hedge fund managers. It’s now grown to more than 1 million downloads by giving users the opportunity to be financial influencers. […]

The app uses a subscription model that charges $89 annually or $10 monthly for access to a platform that connects users to notable traders and executes their trades through a brokerage. Individual traders who want to gain a following can share their moves and charge other Dub users a fee to look at their portfolio.

While high-profile names grab headlines, Wang notes that over 200 creators — real hedge-fund managers overseeing hundreds of millions and star traders from platforms like Twitter and YouTube — drive 80-90% of the app’s top-performing portfolios.