It is never good when a Bitcoin service provider gets fined for some reason. XBT Provider is an issuer of Bitcoin exchange-traded notes. Their product is listed on Nasdaq, yet it appears they somehow violated some of the terms of service. Then again, the provider argues these violations occurred some time ago. For those unaware, XBT Provider was acquired by Global Advisors not too long ago. The company received a US$121,000 fine regardless.
According to Nasdaq Stockholm, XBT Provider violated the rule book for issuers of warrants and certificates. That is a rather vague statement, to say the least. However, it ensures the company failed in at least four departments, which warrants a closer look. According to Nasdaq, the company did not carry out an audit of intranet and IT security. Additionally, they didn’t ensure regulatory compliance with applicable legislation, which is surprising. XBT Provider also failed to ensure the risk function is reported to the Board of Directors. Plus, they didn’t handle a material change in the operations properly.
XBT Provider Fine Will not Affect Business
All of these charges are quite severe, to say the least. However, they will not result in XBT Provider being removed from Nasdaq Stockholm. Instead, the company is fined for 1 million SEK due to these violations. Their Bitcoin exchange traded nodes will remain listed on the platform for the foreseeable future. However, the failure to issue annual reports for 2015 and 2016 may haunt the company moving forward.
In XBT Provider’s defense, most of the violations occurred before Global Advisors took over. The company is not arguing the violations by any means. Instead, they will pay the fine and make changes accordingly. The big culprit was KnC Group, who owned XBT Provider until June 2016. KnC Group ultimately filed for bankruptcy in the same period. That doesn’t justify the violations, but it is important to put things in their right perspective.It will be interesting to see if Nasdaq rectifies their own statement in this regard.
It is also important to note XBT Provider is doing much better now. More specifically, Global Advisors has made major strides to uphold the required industry standards. Moreover, the demand for these ETNs has increased significantly as well. Earlier this year, the company surpassed the milestone of US$100m of assets under management. All of this shows demand for Bitcoin exchange traded notes is not diminishing by any means. Despite the fine, the future still looks bright for XBT Provider.
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