• The US Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) has charged the founder of the crypto project Hex, Richard Heart, with allegedly raising more than $1 billion through unregistered securities offerings.
• The SEC also included three unincorporated businesses (PulseChain, PulseX, and Hex) in the charges.
• Director of the Fort Worth regional office, Eric Werner, stated that Heart urged investors to purchase securities backed by cryptocurrency in offerings that he neglected to register and then went ahead to use some of the cryptocurrency assets to purchase extravagant luxury items.
Hex Founder Charged with Offering Unregistered Securities
The US Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) has charged Hex founder Richard Heart with allegedly raising over $1B through unregistered securities offerings. The SEC has also included three unincorporated businesses (PulseChain, PulseX, and Hex) in the charges.
Heart Allegedly Used Funds for Luxury Goods
The SEC’s lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Additionally, Heart and PulseChain have been charged for using part of the offering proceeds to buy luxury goods such as a 555-carat black diamond christened “The Enigma”
Heart Advised Investors to Sacrifice Cryptocurrency Holdings
The SEC is particularly wary of a staking function on Hex that Heart claimed would provide returns of 38% and claims that Heart intentionally tried to break the law by advising Hex investors to “sacrifice” their cryptocurrency holdings rather than invest in them.
Coinbase Asked by SEC to Offer Bitcoin Only
As well as charging Heart,the SEC asked Coinbase to only offer Bitcoin (BTC) stating that all other cryptocurrencies are securities.
Price Reaction
Following news of the charges against HEX founder Richard Heart,the price of HEX token had dipped by more than 27% to trade at $0.006461 at press time