The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has brought 38 civil complaints against entities it says posed as legitimate U.S. investment advisers, including several tied to crypto offerings and promotional campaigns. In court filings and a public statement dated August 27, 2026, the SEC said the defendants used false filings, fake registration claims, and in some cases fabricated SEC certificates to attract retail investors. The regulator named crypto-related operators including CryptoOrbit, Ftaexchange, Pinnacle, Quantum, and RBH. It is asking a federal court for injunctions, civil penalties, and orders stripping the defendants of future reporting-exemption privileges for adviser filings. FINRA has already removed non-compliant forms for these advisers from adviserinfo.sec.gov at the SEC’s direction. According to the allegations, some firms made materially false statements in Form ADV and failed to file required disclosures, in conduct the SEC says violated Sections 204(a) and 207 of the Investment Advisers Act. The initial complaints do not quantify investor losses. The report also describes disconnected phone numbers, undeliverable mailing addresses, Colorado locations with no actual presence, and filing-system access linked to Hong Kong or the People’s Republic of China.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed charges against 38 entities, accusing them of making materially false statements in Form ADV filings submitted between 2025 and 2026. The companies allegedly tried to pass themselves off as legitimate U.S. investment advisers in order to win retail investors' trust and steer them into investments. According to the SEC, the defendants used fabricated office addresses, supplied invalid phone numbers or numbers connected to unrelated businesses, and filed submissions with highly similar ownership structures and financial data. Some said their private funds had been audited by accounting firms, but those firms could not be located in federal or state public accounting registries. Others posted counterfeit SEC registration certificates on their websites to create an appearance of regulatory oversight. The SEC added that some entities accessed its filing system through overseas IP addresses and refused to provide records that would verify their submissions. The 38 entities' ERA filings have been removed from the SEC website. The regulator says the conduct violated the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 and is seeking permanent injunctions, an order barring the firms from using exempt reporting adviser status to file Form ADV, and civil penalties.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has filed lawsuits against 38 entities over allegedly false Form ADV submissions made between 2025 and 2026, accusing them of masquerading as legitimate, registered investment advisers to gain retail investors' trust. According to the SEC, the firms fabricated office addresses, listed invalid or unrelated phone numbers, and adopted highly similar ownership structures and financial data across filings. Some claimed that their private funds had been audited by accounting firms that the agency could not verify in federal or state directories. Others posted counterfeit SEC registration certificates on their websites. The SEC also noted that certain entities accessed the filing system from offshore IP addresses and refused to supply records to back up their submissions. All 38 firms' ERA filings have been removed from the SEC website. The commission says the conduct violates the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 and is seeking permanent injunctions, prohibitions on future Form ADV submissions as exempt reporting advisers, and civil monetary penalties.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed a civil lawsuit against a total of 38 entities, according to ChainCatcher. The SEC alleges that these entities submitted Form ADV documents during the period from 2025 to 2026 containing material false statements, and that they used those filings to present themselves as legitimate U.S. investment advisers. The stated aim, per the SEC, was to attract retail investors. The defendant list includes CryptoOrbit, Ftaexchange, Pinnacle Crypto Exchange, Quantum Financial Institute, RBH Infinity Exchange, and a number of other firms operating in the cryptocurrency space. Alongside the litigation, the SEC has already removed the ERA filings of the 38 entities from its official public website. The regulator is pursuing permanent injunctions against the defendants, and it is also asking the court to impose civil monetary penalties. This action was reported by ChainCatcher, which did not provide additional details about the content of the alleged misstatements.

A broad set of crypto, payments, regulatory and AI developments emerged between July 16 and July 17. CoinGecko’s 2026 second-quarter report showed total crypto market capitalization fell 12.6% to $2.1 trillion by the end of June, while stablecoin market cap slipped 1.6% to $305.1 billion, marking its first decline since Q3 2023. Centralized exchange spot volume dropped 27.9% to $1.95 trillion, but prediction market notional volume rose 48.7% to $113.8 billion. In Washington, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission proposed a new Regulation E-Delivery framework that would let issuers, broker-dealers and investment advisers default to electronic delivery for a wide range of required disclosures, with a 60-day public comment period after publication in the Federal Register. Separately, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is investigating whether trading on Kalshi involving alleged early access to Trump speech content may have relied on nonpublic information. Corporate and product announcements also accelerated. Visa launched its Visa Stablecoin Platform, while Flex raised $70 million for its stablecoin-based cross-border banking platform. Crypto.com disclosed a $400 million strategic investment from Citadel Securities at a $20 billion valuation, and T. Rowe Price launched TKNZ, described as the first actively managed multi-token spot crypto ETF. Binance, MoonPay, Alpaca, Fireworks, Ethena and several other firms also announced new listings, acquisitions, funding rounds or ecosystem expansions.

Multicoin Capital said its Master Fund has returned 9,281% since inception in 2017, helped by a 537% gain in 2023. The performance highlights the sharp rebound in crypto markets, though the fund had previously suffered a 91.4% loss in 2022.