The Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) today filed settlement charges against Plutus Lending LLC, which does business under the Abra name, for failing to register the offer and sale of its retail crypto asset lending product, Abra Earn. The SEC also alleged that Abra operated as an unregistered investment company. According to the SEC complaint, Abra Earn allowed U.S. investors to bid on their crypto assets to Abra in exchange for a commitment by Abra to pay a floating rate. At its peak, Abra Earn planned to own approximately $600 million in assets, with nearly 500 million of that coming from U.S. investors. The complaint alleges that Abra marketed Abra Earn as a means for investors to "automatically" earn interest on crypto assets, using the investors' crypto assets in various ways to generate income for themselves and to fund interest payments. The complaint further states that Abra Earn was offered and sold as securities, and that these offers and sales did not qualify for the SEC registration exemption. In order to resolve the Commission's allegations, Abra, without admitting or denying the SEC's allegations, agreed to an injunction prohibiting it from violating the registration provisions of the Securities Act and the Investment Company Act and requiring it to pay a civil penalty of an amount determined by the court.