SEC Charges Abra with Unregistered Offers and Sales of Crypto Asset Securities

The Securities and Exchange Commission today filed settled charges against Plutus Lending LLC, which does business as Abra, for failing to register the offers and sales of its retail crypto asset lending product, Abra Earn. The SEC also charged Abra with operating as an unregistered investment company. According to the SEC’s complaint, in or around July 2020, Abra began to offer and sell Abra Earn in the United States. Abra Earn allowed U.S. investors to tender their crypto assets to Abra in exchange for Abra’s promise to pay a variable interest rate. At its height, the Abra Earn program had approximately $600 million in assets, with nearly $500 million from U.S.