SEC Settles With Nebulous for Unregistered Offering of Sianotes in 2014

Published at: Oct. 2, 2019

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has reached a settlement with Nebulous, the company behind the Sia decentralized cloud storage network.

$225,000 in disgorgement and penalties

On Oct. 1 the SEC announced in a news release that the charges were settled in the form of a civil monetary penalty without Nebulous admitting or denying the findings.

According to the U.S. regulator, the Massachusetts-based blockchain business conducted an unregistered offering of Sianotes in 2014 for a total of $120,000, promising future revenue generated from transactions on the Sia network.

As part of the settlement, Nebulous agreed to pay approximately $225,000 in disgorgement and penalties.

Nebulous chief operating officer Zach Herbert reportedly said that:

“While disappointed that the SEC chose to pursue a steep penalty of almost double what we raised in our 2014 offering of Siafunds, especially compared to their lax handling of EOS, we view this settlement as highly positive for Sia. By choosing not to take action against Siacoins, we believe the SEC has validated Sia’s two-token model. We will continue to build and improve the Sia network at a rapid pace.”

SEC reaches $24 million settlement with Block.one

As Cointelegraph previously reported, the SEC recently reached a settlement with EOS parent firm Block.one to pay $24 million in penalties for conducting an unregistered initial coin offering (ICO).

Block.one raised the equivalent of billions of dollars but failed to register its ICO as a securities offering in agreement with U.S. federal securities laws — “nor did it qualify for or seek an exemption from the registration requirements,” the SEC stated.

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