Circle Internet Financial sets aside $10.4M to settle SEC case against Poloniex - WSJ

krblokhin/iStock Editorial via Getty ImagesBoston-based cryptocurrency financer, Circle Internet Financial, set aside $10.4M to settle a case with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission against its discontinued crypto exchange business, Poloniex, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing a regulatory filing.In March, Poloniex offered to settle the SEC case for that amount in response to a complaint the SEC filed in December based on "the trading of cryptocurrencies that may be characterized as securities."Circle sold Poloniex in 2019 after acquiring it the previous year, according to a regulatory filing to the SEC earlier this month; it lost $156.8M on the sale and said the disposal was to "divest from business related to speculative cryptocurrency trading".In 2019, Circle received administrative subpoenas from the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control and an Iranian government agency, investigating possible violations related to Poloniex registered exchange accounts for people in embargoed jurisdictions and for