Prometheum, darling of the SEC, hated by the crypto industry

Prometheum is the first Special Purposed Broker-Dealer. The company is the first official SEC-licensed platform for trading digital assets securities. This means that Prometheum has SEC's permission to offer trading of digital asset securities on its platform. However, there is no way for crypto protocols to register as such with the SEC, which means that there is currently nothing to trade on Prometheum.

But how did this mysterious company manage to get the elusive SEC approval when Coinbase and others have tried for years and failed? It turns out that Prometheum has been around for many years. While the company did not have a product back when it started in 2017 and does not have one now, the company does have a 15M funding round from 2021 to show. What is even more interesting is that the company raised a total of $48M from Wanxiang, a company formed by Lu Guanqui, a former senior Communist Party Official.

Some later found out that the raises were facilitated by "Network 1 Financial Services", a broker that is believed to have an affiliation with the CCP and had a shady regulatory record.

Theories about the company have been swirling the social media, with polarizing thoughts. While some claim that the firm has links with the Chinese Communist Party, pointing to the 2019 SEC filings from Prometheum stating Hashkey and Shanghai Wanxiang Blockchain are "strategic partners and joint venturers."

But there are others who have pointed to Prometheum's team that includes former SEC and FINRA staffers.

Many have also criticised the crypto firm, saying Prometheum doesn't have much to show product-wise despite its years in business and regulatory approvals. During the hearing, Kaplan was asked by Representative Mike Flood if Prometheum offered trading for Bitcoin or Ether, which together make nearly 65% of the $1 trillion crypto market cap, according to Coin Gecko.

Kaplan responded to both questions by saying it did not.

After watching the hearing, many were amazed by how well Prometheum's CEO handled the questions asked in the hearing. This led many to believe that this hearing could be staged and that the SEC had wanted and prepared Kaplan for the hearing.

Speculations on what Prometheum may be

So what exactly is Prometheum? Is it really just a fraud?

Investor, Adam Cochran also made his own speculation that Prometheum could be SEC's plants or they could just simply be grifters who are in for the money

Bitcoin researcher Andrew Bailey also concur with Cochran with his thoughts on Prometheum. Bailey stated that Prometheum can either be two things: a scammer who is trying to disguise themselves as a legit platform or they could be an SEC psyop.