Unicoin CEO: Why Are We Still Under SEC Scrutiny?
While many cryptocurrency companies have been exonerated from prosecution and ongoing investigations, Unicoin remains in limbo.
Jesse Hamilton | Edited by Nikhilesh De on 26 Mar 2025 22:07 UTC
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Unicoin CEO Alex Konanykhin said he has asked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to stop investigating the cryptocurrency business but has not yet received a response.
Unicoin is the latest target of scrutiny from the SEC under former Chairman Gary Gensler, who formally notified the company late last year of its intent to charge it with fraud, deceptive practices, and dealing in unregistered securities. The probe was launched in the final days of President Joe Biden’s administration in December, before the SEC was taken over by cryptocurrency advocates appointed by President Donald Trump.
The CEO, who has seen numerous other crypto companies escape enforcement action from the agency's new leadership, told CoinDesk that he wrote a letter to the agency's new crypto task force on March 17 asking about the investigation.
“I seek your advice on how best to address and end this abuse of power,” Konanykhin wrote in the letter, a copy of which was provided to CoinDesk. He asked that the case be dismissed and the actions of the law enforcement officer involved in the case be reviewed at the agency because of his “willingness to use the SEC’s powers for political purposes.”
An SEC spokesperson declined to comment on Unicoin’s status Wednesday. A Unicoin spokesperson told CoinDesk on Tuesday that the company “remains in the final stages of the SEC review process. At this time, we have not received any new updates or formal feedback from the SEC regarding our registration. We are fully committed to compliance and transparency and continue to work to obtain the necessary approvals for our planned offerings.”
The CEO believes his company, which promises investors returns of up to 8,000%, was targeted by government agencies last year, he told CoinDesk in an interview in Washington.
“They asked us to promise not to go public in the US, not to do an ICO, not to raise funds,” he said. “So I packed up and moved to Europe to rebuild the business.”
He added that Trump's election and the president's promises to make the US the crypto capital of the world prompted him to return to New York from Switzerland with the intention of holding an IPO here.
“We thought the war was over, and we told the SEC, 'Hey, we're resuming our operations,'” Konanykhin said. At that point, the agency announced it would pursue civil suits against the company.
Konanykhin stressed that the regulator accused them of violating securities laws through the airdrop. He claimed that this is a common marketing strategy used in many crypto assets, and this is “what the US president is doing with his memecoin.”
“It’s shameful that the war on cryptocurrency is still going on,” he said. If the agency continues to fight cryptocurrency by going after Unicoin, “I think a lot of observers will be surprised.”
Unicoin began as an attempt to create a “more transparent and trustworthy alternative” to Bitcoin in the U.S. (which, according to Unicoin, has returned 9 million percent to investors over the past 10 years). He noted that some analysts believe Bitcoin was “created by Chinese intelligence, but
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