Months after SEC settlement, crypto startup Gladius shuts down, citing lack of funds

Gladius Network, a cryptocurrency startup that settled charges with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) earlier this year for selling an unregistered security, has closed its operations.

“Despite our best efforts, the company no longer has funds to continue operations,” Alex Godwin, co-founder of Gladius, announced Saturday, adding that the shut down comes into effect immediately.

In late 2017, Gladius conducted an initial coin offering (ICO), raising $12.7 million in the form of nearly 24,000 ether (ETH). Earlier this year, the SEC said that this ICO was not registered under federal securities laws, and reached a settlement with Gladius. As part of the settlement, the regulator asked Gladius to return funds to investors who request a refund and register its tokens as securities.

Gladius was reportedly due for the registration on Nov. 18. Now that the firm has shut down, it is unclear whether Washington, D.C.-based Gladius ever filed the registration. The Block has reached out to Godwin and will update this story if he replies.

Gladius developed a decentralized, peer-to-peer network to rent spare bandwidth and storage space to users to defend against cyberattacks. The firm is now keeping its code open on GitHub for the next three months, allowing anyone to build on it, said Godwin, concluding: “We still believe in the power of our technology, and if anyone in the community is interested in pursuing it we welcome it.”