Uphold disputes NY claims after $5M CredEarn payout
Uphold agreed to repay more than $5 million to CredEarn customers but disputes New York’s account of its role and denies knowledge of fraud.
On May 4, 2026, Uphold announced it agreed to repay more than $5 million to customers who used CredEarn, the yield product offered by Cred LLC, while disputing the New York Office of the Attorney General’s description of the company’s role and denying knowledge of fraud.
The settlement requires Uphold to return more than $5 million to affected users, register as a broker, strengthen third-party due diligence and compliance controls, and transfer any recoveries from Cred’s bankruptcy estate to harmed investors. Uphold said the payment reflected statements it relayed from Cred that later proved false and is not an admission of liability. The company described the agreement as resolving a civil inquiry tied to Cred’s 2020 collapse.
In a post on X, CEO Simon McLoughlin wrote, ‘We agreed to pay $5M to customers, mainly because we unwittingly repeated statements made by Cred about its services that later turned out to be untrue.’ Uphold also said the New York office’s public statement conflicted with facts set out in the settlement and unfairly implied intentional misconduct.
Uphold reported it first learned of Cred’s liquidity problems in October 2020 and said it was not aware that CredEarn’s financial statements were false. After discovering the issues, the platform moved to block access to Cred’s product, stop further transfers of customer funds, and demand that Cred notify regulators. The company warned that it would contact authorities directly if Cred failed to act.
Uphold said its actions limited additional customer exposure and that it later cooperated with federal prosecutors in the criminal case against Cred executives. The company noted the U.S. Department of Justice treated Uphold as a victim in that prosecution.
Cred LLC’s CredEarn program collapsed in 2020 after the company disclosed liquidity problems and later faced allegations of fraud and criminal charges. The settlement with Uphold addresses a separate civil inquiry tied to that collapse; criminal prosecutions and bankruptcy recoveries are continuing.
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