Crypto company Nexo returns to US three years after clash with regulators

PARIS: Crypto company Nexo has relaunched in the United States, it said on Monday, three years after leaving the country and paying a USD45 million fine following clashes with regulators.

Co-founded by former Bulgarian lawmaker Antoni Trenchev, Nexo paid the fine to settle charges brought by US regulators over a crypto lending product, which the Securities and Exchange Commission said should have been registered as a security.

Nexo did not admit or deny the SEC’s findings under the settlement.

Nexo said in a statement on Monday that it was returning to the US in partnership with a listed crypto company, Bakkt , and will sell crypto-backed loans as well as yield-generating products to US customers.

“Nexo discontinued the product covered by the 2023 SEC order for US investors as required,” a spokesperson for Nexo said.

“The current US offering is structured differently and is delivered through appropriately licensed US partners, including, where applicable, an SEC-registered investment adviser for advisory services,” they added. The SEC did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on Nexo’s US relaunch. Monday was a public holiday in the United States. Trenchev had lunch with US President Donald Trump in July at his Scottish golf resort, where Nexo was the lead sponsor of a golf championship. There, they discussed politics and their “joint vision for crypto in the US”, according to a post on X by Trenchev.

Once a crypto sceptic, Trump reversed his stance before returning to the White House. Soon after he took office last year, the SEC ended a years-long crackdown on crypto companies. Nexo hosted Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, at a “Trump Business Vision 2025” event in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, last April.

Responding to a question from Reuters about those contacts, the Nexo spokesperson said the company’s return to the US was “based on our ability to offer products in a compliant structure” and was not related to its interactions with the Trump family.