Overview
- Australia’s corporate regulator used its website-disruption powers to take down multiple domains linked to Yepbit and added warnings about the platform to its Investor Alert List.
- ASIC publicly said Yepbit told customers that the regulator had frozen their funds, and the regulator confirmed no such freeze had been imposed and that the claim was false.
- The watchdog received multiple reports of investors unable to withdraw money from Yepbit and found the platform holds no Australian Financial Services Licence and is not on AUSTRAC’s VASP register.
- ASIC urged affected users to contact their banks, report suspected scams to authorities, and verify licences via ASIC and AUSTRAC registers rather than trusting platform claims.
- The enforcement follows a February cease-and-desist order by the Philippine SEC and comes as AUSTRAC has tightened AML/CTF rules and launched a public VASP register to help consumers verify crypto providers.