Trading
platform
eToro
agreed
Thursday
to
settle
charges
with
the
U.S.
Securities
and
Exchange
Commission
that
it
operated
as
an
unregistered
broker
and
clearing
agency
and
that
it
facilitated
trading
in
some
crypto
assets
that
are
securities.
The
agreement
sees
eToro
paying
a
$1.5
million
fine
and
means
the
company
will
be
limited
to
trading
just
three
digital
assets:
bitcoin
(BTC),
bitcoin
cash
(BCH)
and
ether
(ETH).
Etoro,
which
is
based
in
Israel,
is
not
a
big
player
in
the
U.S.
crypto
market.
It
has
only
240,000
customer
accounts
compared
to
Coinbase’s
100
million.
But
the
SEC
agreement
is
significant
for
the
clues
it
offers
about
how
the
regulator
views
the
key
legal
question
of
which
digital
assets
are
not
securities,
and
therefore
outside
its
supervision,
lawyers
contacted
by
CoinDesk
said.
