Companies • January 12, 2024, 10:52AM EST
Published 1 minute earlier on
Quick Take
- Genesis Global Trading settled with the New York State Department of Financial Services on Friday, agreeing to cease operations in the state and surrender its BitLicense.
Genesis Global Trading, a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, will pay $8 million to the state of New York after its financial regulator said the company violated rules by being vulnerable to illicit activity and cybersecurity threats. Genesis Global Trading settled with the New York State Department of Financial Services on Friday, agreeing to cease operations in the state and surrender its BitLicense — a license for virtual currency activities in the state. "Genesis Global Trading's failure to maintain a functional compliance program demonstrated a disregard for the Department’s regulatory requirements and exposed the company and its customers to potential threats," NYDFS Superintendent Adrienne A. Harris said in a statement. After routine examinations and an enforcement investigation, NYDFS said it found that the firm failed to meet standards around anti-money laundering compliance, suspicious activity report filings and cybersecurity. "The cybersecurity risk assessment completed by GGT in December 2022, itself years late, was not sufficiently comprehensive and did not include identification of areas, systems, or processes that required material improvement, updating, or redesign, or plans for 11 enhancing GGT’s cybersecurity program to achieve full compliance with the requirements of the Cybersecurity Regulation," the regulator said in the consent order. Fortune first reported on the news of the settlement. Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures. © 2023 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.Multiple violations
About Author
Sarah is a reporter at The Block covering policy, regulation and legal happenings. Before, Sarah was a reporter with CQ Legal writing about securities regulation, which is where she first started reporting on crypto. Sarah has also written for The Bond Buyer and American Banker, among other finance-related publications. She graduated from the University of Missouri and earned a degree in print and digital journalism. Sarah is based in Washington D.C., and is an avid coffee lover. You can follow her on Twitter @ForTheWynn.
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