A federal judge banned trading platform PaxForex from operating in the U.S. late last month, writing in a default judgement that the futures shop, which in 2018 was host to unlicensed leveraged crypto products, failed to defend itself in court.

Laino Group Limited, the St. Vincent-domiciled company behind PaxForex now must pay a $374,864 fine and is permanently barred from trading, soliciting or registering in the U.S., ordered David Hittner, a federal judge in Texas’ Southern District. 

Hittner ruled that PaxForex’s leveraged bitcoin, ether and litecoin trading operation violated the Commodity Exchange Act because it failed to register with the CFTC. In the U.S., derivatives and futures contracts venues must follow rules set out by  financial regulators.

Federal agents seized the company’s domain name last September in coordination with the CFTC, which then filed suit.

“The CFTC strongly urges the public to verify a company’s registration with the CFTC before committing funds,” the agency said in a statement.