.@UpholdInc recently entered into an agreement with the New York Attorney General to settle its civil enquiry into the collapse of Cred, a third-party lending firm in 2020. We agreed to pay $ 5M to customers, mainly because we unwittingly repeated statements made by Cred about its services that later turned out to be untrue. (Under New York’s Martin Act - the legal basis for the NYAG’s investigation - there is no requirement that publishers of false statements know them to be false in order to incur certain liability.) Last week, the New York Attorney General issued a statement that misrepresents some of the key facts and is inconsistent with the parties' agreement. We immediately - and entirely reasonably - asked for that statement to be corrected. The NYAG refused. I am taking the opportunity here to set the record straight. Over the past decade, Uphold has built a reputation for trust, transparency and integrity - and I am determined to honor that principle now by being candid. First, I am surprised that a U.S. regulator would refuse to correct a statement that is incorrect and therefore unfair. Six years ago, a third-party firm, Cred LLC, got into financial difficulties and collapsed. Some Cred executives were later convicted of fraud. We were appalled by what happened and have spent hundreds of hours working with the U.S. Department of Justice to help them understand the sequence of events. The D.O.J. agrees that Uphold was instrumental in bringing Cred’s dishonesty to light and preventing further fraud at that firm. At the time, we were one of several crypto exchanges allowing customers to move funds to the Cred platform. As soon as we became aware of the liquidity issues at Cred, we immediately insisted that Cred inform its regulators and cease taking in funds. We also protected our customers by cutting off transfers to Cred. #Uphold rejects any suggestion in the NYAG’s public statement that it knowingly promoted Cred’s fraudulent scheme. That is not true. Cred deliberately misled Uphold. Uphold, like its customers and CredEarn’s other users, was a victim of Cred’s deception. The U.S. Department of Justice correctly identified Uphold as a victim in its criminal prosecution of the Cred executives involved. Just like our customers, we believed the statements made by Cred about its products. Many of our employees, senior executives, and their family members moved money to CredEarn and lost money when Cred collapsed. We are deeply sorry for all Cred customers who lost money. We have learned lessons from the experience. Since these events, we have implemented more stringent policies and procedures for vetting and monitoring third parties. We are happy to enter into the settlement agreement to help Cred’s victims - but we will not accept a sensationalized, mischaracterization of our role in these events in the NYAG's public statements. As CEO, I feel obliged to defend @UpholdInc's reputation and set the record straight.

We're talking shop with the builders 🛠️ Join us live on Monday with @ExactlyProtocol 🎙️ @PaulWavelength and @GabrielGruber will dive into the launch of the Exa Credit Card on Uphold. Have feedback or questions? Comment below ↓ x.com/i/spaces/1NxarayorODKj