Texas Has Cracked Down On Arise Bank
First Bitconnect and now Arise Bank in Texas. Texas has not been so warm and nice when it comes to false claims and marketing of a decentralized bank. Arise Bank recently got raided and issued a cease and desist and demanded they leave Texas. We dont know where the road for banking and Bitshares will end and how Evander Holyfield feels how about these recent events as he is an investor in this banking platform. We must be careful how we market things and the wording we use when creating new platforms involving cryptocurrency. I think we will face alot of resistance at first when building decentralized versions of financial institutions as things are so unregulated. Bottomline, be careful what you say your product does and be mindful of where your setting up shop :).
“The Cease & Desist Order was based on the Commissioner’s finding that AriseBank violated Texas Finance Code Chapter 31 by using the term “bank” in its name and marketing materials to imply that it is in the business of banking in this state”
According to Jared, the reason for the raid was that the SEC claim aCO (Arise Coin) is a security, not a utility, and thus have to comply with the corresponding regulations (which would in effect be a huge barrier to success, from what I understand). There is also an ongoing dispute about the use of the word "bank", which led Texas Department of Banking to issue a cease and desist order January 5th.
This is Arise Bank's official response. Everything connected to Arise Bank was seized by the authorities. Whether or not this includes the ICO contributions is yet to be known. I expect an official statement clarifying these issues to be released in the coming days.