Regulatory Risks

The custodial alpha version of Quiver is an unregistered derivatives exchange, and as a result, to comply with US law, it is not available to US persons.

All alpha users of Quiver will be required to digitally sign a statement confirming to the CFTC and other US government agencies that they are not considered US persons according to US law. This message will be digitally validated before the user receives access to the platform.

Be aware that making false statements is a federal process crime in the United States code, and that courts have affirmed convictions for false statements made to private entities, when the statements are in relation to government regulation.

The Quiver founders work regularly at an office in the greater São Paulo region, in Brazil. However, according to the recently approved Lei 14478/22, Quiver is not allowed to offer cryptocurrency trading services in the country without approval from the appropriate government agencies. Quiver has not yet requested or received an authorization or an exemption from either the Brazilain Central Bank or the Comissão de Valores Mobiliários - CVM. As a result, to comply with Brazilian law, Quiver is not available to Brazilian citizens, and we also require in the signed statement a declaration that users are not Brazilian citizens for them to gain access to the platform.

If at any moment we notice that users are interacting with our platform in violation of the above, we will act to immediately close the account, including any open positions, and return all available balance to the address associated with the account. The digitally signed statements will be kept in our possession.

We may also close accounts, with proper warning for closing of open positions, if new government regulations prevent us from continuing to serve some or all of our users. In any such circumstances user funds will be protected and returned to the addresses associated with the account, and no further actions from the user will be required for the funds to be returned.

As we transition to a noncustodial exchange, we’ll explore legal options to expand the range of users allowed to access the platform. We strongly believe that noncustodial exchanges can operate in the United States with no need for previous approval from government agencies, according to current US law, and we are prepared to defend that view in court.

Furthermore, as we further move towards building a fully decentralized protocol, the founders intend to pass over de facto control of the project to the decentralized autonomous organization, with decision modules running market-based governance procedures, which may create permissionless and censorship-resistant markets. We also strongly believe that building such an open-source, decentralized protocol is an act of free speech defended by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, and we are also prepared to defend that view in court if required.