Unicoin Co-Founder Wants to Be ‘Next’ as SEC Eases Crypto Crackdown Under Trump

Unicoin co-founder Alex Konanykhin wants to get off the SEC’s enforcement list as the regulator retreats from an aggressive crypto stance under the previous Biden administration.

“We would like to be next,” Konanykhin wrote in a Miami Herald op-ed on Thursday, pointing to the dozen other crypto companies already freed from SEC investigations and lawsuits.

The SEC’s pivot from “regulation by enforcement” to a more industry-friendly approach has seen cases against major players like Coinbase, Binance, Ripple, and Kraken terminated over the past few weeks, with other cases either being dropped entirely or seeing probes paused.

When the SEC began investigating and pursuing cases against crypto companies following the fall of FTX, most of those players were hit with allegations and threats of enforcement actions.

Unicoin was late on the SEC’s radar, with the enforcement action against them handed out late last year. This was “a sign” that then-outgoing Chairman Gary Gensler wasn’t done with his alleged anti-crypto crusade, Fortune reported at the time.

At the time, regulators alleged that Konanykhin’s Miami-based firm was involved in fraud, deceptive practices, and handling unregistered securities.

“I can only say one word: bullshit. Complete and utter bullshit,” Konanykhin said in an interview with Fortune.

The notification came “in the final days of the Joe Biden administration,” before leadership transitioned to those allied by “crypto fan Trump,” Konanykhin wrote Thursday.

Unicoin was then forced to move its operations to Europe and commit to avoiding U.S. fundraising.

Unicoin tokens are securities

Konanykhin previously claimed that his firm had sold $3.5 billion worth of Unicoin tokens through deals and buy-now-pay-later agreements to about 70,000 investors.

While the SEC had been pursuing various crypto firms for offering unregistered securities, with most of those crypto firms claiming that their offerings are not, in fact, securities, Unicoin does the opposite: it claims that its token is a security.

Despite stating it had publicly reported with the SEC for over five years, Unicoin has yet to register its token with the regulator, public records show. Decrypt has reached out for further comment on that point.

Konanykhin claims Unicoin embraces transparency by disclosing “transaction records, audits, and financial reports” despite what he called “unwarranted scrutiny” under the previous administration.

Unicoin first came to the limelight when Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak publicly promoted its token launch in 2022. Wozniak was a panelist on Unicorn Hunters, the investment TV show that launched Unicoin.

“I’m hoping Unicoin’s very successful, but at least it’s not based on zero, just based on words and talk. It’s really based on the outcome of investments,” Wozniak said of the project.

Edited by Sebastian Sinclair