SEC Agrees with Mango Markets on MNGO Token Sales

The SEC has announced an agreement with Mango Markets on a $70 million sale of unregistered tokens.
Mango DAO, Blockworks Foundation have agreed to pay $700,000 in civil penalties.
The settlement will see Mango Markets destroy MNGO tokens and ask exchanges to cancel them.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission announced on September 27 that it has charged Mango Dao and Blockworks Foundation for the supply and sale of unregistered crypto assets.

The SEC charges relate to the sale of MNGO, the management symbol of Mango Markets. The platforms served as unregistered brokers for the DeFi platform.

In its complaint to the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, the SEC alleged that the three entities violated US securities laws and broker-dealer registration provisions.

According to an SEC report, Panama-registered Mango DAO and Blockworks Foundation raised more than $70 million from the sale of MNGO tokens. In the year The sale, which started in August 2021, was offered to investors from around the world, including from the US.

The SEC said it had settled with the companies, which agreed to comply with the orders and orders and pay a total of $700,000 in civil penalties.

Destroy MNGO tokens

As part of the settlement, Mango DAO, Mango Labs and Blockworks Foundation will liquidate MNGO tokens. The parties will request trading platforms to cancel MNGO and not ask any crypto exchanges to allow MNGO tokens to be traded.

These orders and penalties will be enforced after they are approved by the court.

Hacking mango markets

Earlier this year, Mango Markets announced an allocation of $250,000 in USDC, with the funds earmarked to explore the growing regulatory scrutiny it has faced. The platform experienced a major exploit in October 2022, when an attacker removed more than $100 million worth of digital assets from the platform.

The hijacker, Avraham Eisenberg, was later arrested and charged with the robbery.

However, that exploit appears to have ignited regulatory focus on mango markets, leading to the latest SEC charges and settlement. Mango Markets filed for a settlement agreement with the SEC in August.