New York Attorney General Letitia James announced that crypto platform Uphold has been ordered to pay over $5 million in damages to affected users for promoting the allegedly fraudulent crypto investment product CredEarn. The investigation revealed that between January 2019 and October 2020, Uphold promoted CredEarn, launched by Cred LLC, as a "safe and reliable" high-yield savings product, promising users "comprehensive insurance coverage." However, it failed to disclose that its returns actually came from issuing high-risk microloans to low-income gamers in China, and the promised insurance coverage did not exist. The New York Attorney General's office also pointed out that Uphold did not obtain the necessary brokerage or commodity brokerage registration qualifications during the promotion of the product. With Cred filing for bankruptcy in 2020, a large number of users suffered losses. According to the settlement, Uphold will directly pay $5 million to affected users, and will also return all $545,000 recovered from Cred's bankruptcy proceedings to relevant investors. (ny.gov)