The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed a lawsuit against the blockchain company ConsenSys.

SEC alleges that ConsenSys is operating as an unregistered broker through MetaMask. MetaMask is one of the most widely used wallets in the cryptocurrency sector.

Raised $250 million

The SEC also stated that ConsenSys violated laws through its MetaMask staking service. In the lawsuit filed in the Eastern District of New York in the US District Court on Friday, it was alleged that ConsenSys issued and sold unregistered securities through its cryptocurrency staking programs and acted as an unregistered broker through the MetaMask staking service.

In this way, it was stated that Consensys raised more than 250 million dollars in fees.

Gurbir S. Grewal, Director of the Sanctions Division of the SEC, stated that Consensys entered the US securities market by allegedly raising hundreds of millions of dollars as an unregistered broker and conducting the unregistered issuance and sale of tens of thousands of securities, depriving investors of the protections provided by federal securities laws.

Grewal, "This sanction action shows that we hold the non-compliant actors in this field accountable, just as we do in other securities markets."

ConsenSys was expecting this move

Consensys said it is waiting for the SEC's move on Friday:

Consensys was fully expecting the SEC's threat that our MetaMask software interface needed to register as a securities broker. The SEC is pursuing an anti-crypto agenda carried out with arbitrary enforcement actions. This is the latest example of redefining legal standards and expanding the SEC's jurisdiction through litigation efforts.