New Jersey Ban Continues The Cryptocurrency Crackdown Trend

Firms dealing in the cryptocurrency space are still facing repression from U.S. regulators following a recent recovery in bitcoin prices to more than $8,800.

Bitstrade, a bitcoin-related investment pool was ordered on Friday by the New Jersey Bureau of Securities to stop offering its goods in New Jersey. Claims by the regulators states that Bitstrade who allegedly offered to invest customer’s bitcoin in the stock market had apparently been providing the equivalent of securities, without registering with the New Jersey government. Nonetheless, the ban does not stop the firm from offering its services to other states.

There are also doubts on whether the company’s listed address in Redland, Calif. is genuine.

New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal in a statement explained the urgency of the ban against Bitstrade saying they want to ensure that investors are not making investment with an unidentified Internet entity and not knowing how their funds are being used.

According to the Bitstrade website which has no identified executives explains that investors are guaranteed of having 10% of returns.

You get to make more profits based on the number of investments you make. The website claims that it already has an estimated $802,035 investments for the time being.

But the ban on Bitstrade follows a recent repression in the cryptocurrency space. According to Jay Clayton, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the way of coming up with fund using cryptocurrencies or an initial coin offering (ICO) should only be approved under strict regulations.