The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced that it has filed a cease and desist order against the sole owner and operator of EtherDelta, an unregistered online trading platform, marking the first time the commission went after such a platform based on findings that it operated as an unregistered securities exchange.

The SEC claimed in an announcement released on Nov. 8 that EtherDelta and its founder, Zachary Coburn, violated Section Five of the Exchange Act, which makes it illegal for any broker, dealer or exchange directly or indirectly to “effect any transaction in a security or to report any such transaction in interstate commerce, unless the exchange is registered as a national securities exchange under Section Six of the Exchange Act.”