Kraken Operator to Pay $5M Fine to Australian Regulator
The Australian Federal Court has ordered the operator of the United States-based cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, Bit Trade, to pay a fine of $5.1 million after ruling in favor of the country’s corporate regulator.
The judgment by Justice John Nicholas on December 12 requires Bit Trade to pay the fine within 60 days, as well as court costs. The court found that Bit Trade had failed to meet design and distribution obligations and had operated as a credit facility without a proper license.
This penalty is lower than the sum of $12.8 million that the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) had requested, with Justice Nicholas stating that the original amount was “excessive.”
However, the fine still surpassed Bit Trade’s own proposal of a maximum of $2.5 million, which the judge deemed to be too low.
