The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a 90-page lawsuit against cryptocurrency exchange Kraken on Monday, re-centering the firm among a handful of crypto giants in the agency’s legal crosshairs.

The lawsuit accuses Kraken of a slew of securities law violations, and of commingling customer funds with corporate assets in ways that could risk major losses for both parties.

The SEC Strikes Again

Per an accompanying press release from the SEC, Kraken has simultaneously operated as an unregistered securities exchange, broker, dealer, and clearing agency in the United States, intertwining all such traditional services since 2018.

Specifically, the company made nine-figure profits by “unlawfully facilitating the buying and selling of crypto asset securities.”

Such charges mimic those that the SEC levied against Coinbase and Binance in June, naming many of the same “crypto asset securities” mentioned in the prior lawsuits, alongside some new tokens like ALGO, ATOM, COTI, MANA, and OMG.

“Kraken’s choice of unlawful profits over investor protection is one we see far too often in this space, and today we’re both holding Kraken accountable for its misconduct and sending a message to others to come into compliance,” stated SEC enforcement director Gurbir S. Grewal.

In their respective defenses, Binance and Coinbase have denied listing securities on their platform, accusing the SEC of misinterpreting securities laws to be overly broad.

Binance, for instance, has likened cryptocurrencies involved within an investment contract to oranges or trading cards – not to investment contracts themselves which inherently include an expectation of profit.

In a conversation with CryptoPotato, patent lawyer Sandy Seth argued that the SEC’s arguments contain no merit in either its case agains