CT AG Warns Residents About Unregulated Offshore DeFi Exchanges
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong has issued a consumer alert warning residents about unregulated offshore decentralized finance (DeFi) cryptocurrency exchanges. The September 3, 2026 alert names seven platforms operating outside state and federal safeguards: GMX, Gains Network, dYdX, Aevo, Drift Protocol, Vertex Protocol, and Hyperliquid.
Tong stated that these platforms are 'built to lure investors in with promises of easy access and bigger returns,' but investors who run into trouble will be stranded with little to no recourse. Perez added that unregulated offshore platforms operate outside the safeguards that legitimate regulated financial institutions follow, leaving consumers without protections when a platform evades U.S. oversight.
The alert highlights how DeFi markets itself as open-access finance run by software and smart contracts but often has centralized corporate operations with opaque management, often registered in offshore jurisdictions such as Singapore and the Cayman Islands.