An unregulated cryptocurrency exchange whose employees said they wanted to be aggressive about trading digital assets, even though their legal status was uncertain, has agreed to pay $10m to settle a regulatory investigation.

Poloniex violated investor-protection laws by not registering its operations with federal regulators, the Securities and Exchange Commission said on 9 August. The Boston-based company allowed users to trade digital assets that were unregistered securities from 2017 through 2019, the SEC alleged.