Washington state officials have ordered Coinme, a Bitcoin
The Washington State Department of Financial Institutions (DFI) issued a temporary order and a formal statement of charges on December 2.
The agency said Coinme’s method of selling cryptocurrency through printed vouchers violates the state’s Uniform Money Services Act.
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Coinme, based in Seattle, allowed customers to buy paper vouchers at its kiosks, which could later be exchanged online for cryptocurrency. However, many people did not redeem their vouchers.
According to the DFI, Coinme recorded those unredeemed amounts as income rather than returning the value to customers or reporting them to the state as unclaimed property.
The company has 20 days from receiving the order to request a hearing. If it does not, the temporary shutdown will become permanent on the 21st day.
Under the order, Coinme must immediately stop serving Washington customers, except for returning funds. It must also separate customer money into individual accounts and repay each person either the amount they spent or the current value of their cryptocurrency, whichever is higher.
The DFI also plans to cancel Coinme’s money transmitter license and issue a $300,000 fine along with a $375 investigation fee.
The charges include Coinme’s co-founder and CEO, Neil Bergquist, who may be banned, along with the company, from working in the money transfer industry for ten years.
On December 3, the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection’s Gaming Division ordered KalshiEX, Robinhood Derivatives, and Crypto.com
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