Uphold Fined $5 Million for Promoting Deceptive Crypto Investment

New York State has secured a major victory in its efforts to regulate the cryptocurrency market, forcing Uphold to pay a $5 million fine for promoting a fraudulent investment product.

The platform's advertising campaign, which ran from January 2019 to October 2020, touted CredEarn as a safe and reliable savings product with attractive annual returns. However, an investigation by the New York Attorney General's office revealed that Uphold had not informed users about the true nature of these returns.

CredEarn was actually generating revenue by issuing small loans to low-income video game players who typically have no credit history and cannot access traditional financial services. This has sparked concerns about the lack of transparency in the cryptocurrency industry, particularly when it comes to investment products targeting vulnerable individuals.