The United States Securities and Exchange Commission has sent $4.6 million in reparations to investors in Ethereum-based search engine BitClave’s initial coin offering (ICO), the agency said on Nov. 20.

The payment is part of a settlement BitClave agreed to pay in 2020 after the SEC charged the search engine for failing to register its 2017 ICO as a securities offering.

“The checks are in the mail. We are sending out more than $4.6M to investors harmed by BitClave, PTE Ltd.’s unregistered ICO of digital asset securities. After a notice claims process, investors will now be receiving their share of the BitClave Fair Fund,” the SEC said in a post on the X platform.

SEC sends reparations to BitClave ICO investors image 0

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In 2020, BitClave agreed to reimburse some 9,500 investors who bought into its $25.5 million ICO three years earlier.

BitClave did not admit to wrongdoing but committed to returning the $25.5 million raised from the ICO and paying roughly $4 million in added penalties.

Payments went to an escrow account called the Fair Fund, which is what the SEC distributed on Nov. 20.

In 2017, BitClave launched Consumer Activity Token (CAT), which the SEC argued was a securities offering because investors had reason to believe CAT would appreciate in value.

CAT’s white paper said that “as more service providers join, the amount of CATs required for an equivalent service will gradually decrease, corresponding to a CAT value increase,” according to a 2020 SEC filing.

BitClave also agreed to burn 1 billion uncirculated CAT tokens and request exchange delistings.

The SEC has taken an aggressive regulatory stance toward crypto under US President Joe Biden, bringing upward of 100 regulatory actions against industry companies.

In July, President-elect Donald Trump promised to “fire” Gary Gensler, who currently heads the SEC. 

Trump has also said he wants to make America “the crypto capital of the world.”

On Oct. 2, the SEC’s head of enforcement, Gurbir Grewal,  stepped down from his role .

As Cointelegraph reported, Trump is considering creating a new White House post dedicated entirely to cryptocurrency policy. The role would be the first-ever crypto-specific White House post.

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