The SEC accuses Quantstamp of violating U.S. securities laws when it sold more than 5,000 investors more than $28 million worth of its proprietary QSP tokens during its 2017 initial ICO. The regulator believes that Quantstamp explicitly mentioned the possibility of an increase in token value as a direct consequence of the company’s future successes. Officials insist: after the team’s ICO, Quantstamp said it was committed to making QSP tokens available for trading on third-party digital asset exchanges.
Quantstamp’s objection that QSP tokens are not securities and therefore not subject to registration was rejected by the SEC. The regulator insists this does not comply with any known statutory provisions because QSP buyers “reasonably expected to profit from Quantstamp’s efforts”.
The Quantstamp administration decided to settle the
the legal dispute without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings. The company paid liquidated damages of $2.5 million with prejudgment interest, as well as a $1 million civil penalty.
SEC lawyers said earlier that the judge’s ruling exonerating Ripple’s secondary market operations was wrongly ruled and could be reconsidered soon.