United States of America: Reached settlement in SEC investigation into Quantstamp for conducting an unregistered initial coin offering of crypto asset securities

On 21 July 2023, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it has agreed to settle charges against Quantstamp Inc. for allegedly conducting an unregistered initial coin offering of crypto asset securities, raising over USD 28 million from around 5,000 investors to develop and market an automated smart contract security auditing platform. Under the settlement, Quantstamp agreed to a cease-and-desist order and to pay disgorgement of USD 1’979’201, prejudgment interest of USD 494’314, and a civil penalty of USD 1 million without admitting or denying the SEC's findings.