New York forces Uphold to pay $5M over fraudulent crypto investment scheme

New York AG Letitia James secured a $5 million settlement from Uphold for promoting CredEarn, a crypto savings product that misled users about its risks.

New York Attorney General Letitia James has secured more than $5 million from cryptocurrency platform Uphold over its role in promoting a fraudulent investment product.

The settlement centers around Uphold’s promotion of CredEarn, a product offered by Cred, LLC and its CEO Daniel Schatt. Between January 2019 and October 2020, the platform marketed CredEarn to users on its platform and mobile app as a safe, reliable savings product with attractive annual interest payments.

However, Uphold didn’t tell customers that Cred was generating those returns by making microloans to low-income video game players in China, who are typically borrowers with no credit histories and no access to traditional financial institutions, the Attorney General’s office said in an announcement.  

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