New Jersey Issues Cease-and-Desist to Crypto Investment Firm

New Jersey regulators have sent a cease-and-desist letter to an online cryptocurrency investment site, alleging that the company is fraudulently offering securities in the state.

The state's Bureau of Securities, along with the New Jersey Attorney General, said Friday morning that it was moving to prevent Bitstrade from making further offerings, which officials said failed to disclose information about its physical location, financial health or the names of its senior employees.

Bitstrade boasts on its website that it is "a registered United States company providing Private Banking service to the masses," though the address listed at the top is the same as Blue Razor, a domain registration company based in Scottsdale, Arizona. A message sent through Bitstrade's online message system was not immediately returned at press time.

According to the state government, Bitstrade is not currently registered to offer securities in the state.

Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said in a statement:

"The Bureau’s action today reinforces our commitment to protecting investors as they navigate the uncharted and largely unregulated domain of cryptocurrency-related investments. We want to make sure that investors tempted to cash in on the cryptocurrency rage aren't being lured into sending funds to an anonymous internet entity without knowing where the funds are going or how they'll be used."

Friday's developments continue a recent trend of state regulators issuing cease-and-desist letters to suspected cryptocurrency scams.

In the past month, regulators in Texas, for example, have sent such notices to a Hong Kong-based company behind an ICO and a crypto-lending platform akin to BitConnect, which collapsed last month and has since sparked several class-action lawsuits in the U.S.