Crypto regulations are deepening as regulators continue to announce actions against the crypto industry. Today, the NBA Hall of Fame player Paul Pierce settled with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over allegations of violating the rights of the digital asset EthereumMax, which the regulator considers a ‘crypto security.’
This comes after the SEC continues to crack down on the crypto industry. Pierce was charged with the same offense as other celebrities in connection with the promotion of a cash scheme supported by the EthereumMax project.
EthereumMax Offenses, Punishments, And Lessons
In 2021, NBA legend Pierce promotes the EthereumMax token. According to the SEC, this is considered a violation because Pierece failed to disclose that he was promoting the token for profit.
Reportedly, pierce was paid a total of over $244,000 in EMAX tokens. As part of the settlement with the SEC, the NBA player will pay the sum of $1.1 million as a penalty for the violations committed and forfeit “about $240,000,” according to the SEC.
SEC Chairman Gary Gensler noted:
This case is another reminder for celebrities: The law requires you to tell the public from whom and how much you will pay to promote your investment in securities, and you cannot lie to investors when you own a security.
In addition to the fine, Pierce’s punishment includes not promoting crypto assets for the next three years.
The SEC further noted that Pierce’s promotion of EthereumMax on his social media page was another form of misleading the public about holding EMAX. The player claims to have more EMAX tokens by sharing pictures with his followers.
Instead, the player dumped EMAX tokens on the market. Pierce write on Twitter in May 2021, ″@espn I don’t need you, “I got @ethereum_max I made more money with this crypto last month than with all of you in a year.”
Pierce was just one of them
Pierce is not the only celebrity involved in the legal case regarding the promotion of the EMAX project. Stars such as Kim Kardashian and sports legend Floyd Mayweather Jr. are also part of the SEC case. over links to EthereumMax.
Like Pierce, Kim Kardashian settles with the SEC and pay a $1.2 million fine. On the other hand, Mayweather chose to face SEC charges. As reported by Bitcoinist last October, the lawyer of the boxing legend finally filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, as Mayweather claimed in the action that he never made any statements against the EMAX token
Furthermore, this is just one of the many SEC stories that have made headlines this past week. On Monday, regulators ordered crypto company Paxos to stop distributing BUSD, the Binance-branded stablecoin.
In addition, on Thursday, the The SEC sued Do Kwon, founder of the now ill-fated Terra project and Terraform Labs, for “a multi-billion dollar crypto asset securities fraud orchestra” through the UST stablecoin algorithm.
Meanwhile, the crypto market is still in an uptrend regardless of the SEC crackdown. Ethereum has experienced a slight retracement, falling by 2.5% and 1.5% in the past 24 hours. As of this writing, the global crypto market still remains above $1.1 trillion.
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