Education FAQ

EquitiesFirst is not required to be regulated in the United States including by the Securities and Exchange Commission or CFTC as it does not engage in US securities or commodities dealing or advisory.

EquitiesFirst is licensed and regulated in each jurisdiction it engages in transactions with clients as required.

EquitiesFirst does not have external financing or debt, nor do we manage capital from external investors. The firm is fully privately-owned and only invests its own proprietary capital. Together, these factors remove liquidity risk and contagion risk from within our portfolio.

For over 24 years, our prudent share management and broad diversification have made sure that our borrowers’ shares were returned at loan maturity when the loan principal was repaid. At that point, your shares are held with one of the world’s largest custodian banks for safekeeping in compliance with industry standards.

EquitiesFirst maintains a 24/7 risk management and trading team which ensures that it’s always in a position to return the clients’ collateral upon loan repayment at maturity.  EquitiesFirst has a proven track record over its 24 years of providing capital to its clients.

As a privately owned company, EquitiesFirst is 100% owned by Al Christy, Jr. While its financial statements are private, it has over 24 years of proven performance over thousands of transactions.

EquitiesFirst’s founder and CEO, Alexander Christy, Jr. is recognized as a pioneer in equity-backed lending and frequently sought-after for his insight and expertise.

– Longevity. Since 2002, EquitiesFirst has completed over thousands of transactions, scaling organically as a self-funded, private investment firm. Our prudent collateral management and broad diversification have made sure that our borrowers’ shares were returned at loan maturity when the loan principal was repaid.

– Risk management. At any given time, our broadly diversified investment portfolio holds several hundred positions across sectors, geographies, and times to maturity, to help protect and secure our portfolio resilience irrespective of broader market conditions.

– No external financing or debt. EquitiesFirst is fully privately-owned and only invests its own proprietary assets. EquitiesFirst does not have external financing or debt, nor do we manage capital from external investors. This safeguards the stability of our capital, removing liquidity risk and contagion risk from within our portfolio.

As a global financial institution, our top priority is managing risk, regulatory compliance and AML considerations. For over 20 years, EquitiesFirst has worked to protect borrowers through a robust infrastructure to mitigate a wide variety of risk factors and prevent fraud. The measures we take help EquitiesFirst, our borrowers, and our partners remain safeguarded against possible improprieties.

Title and custody transfers are a common requirement for non-recourse equity-backed financing particularly when the funds can be used for any legal purpose.

As with all financial decisions, it’s important to understand the risks of non-recourse equity-backed borrowing before proceeding. Events beyond your control, like market fluctuations that may reduce the value of your pledged securities, could lead to a margin call.

Equities First Holdings, LLC (EFH) began operation in the State of California in October 2008, under a California Lenders License. EFH maintained the license and filed the necessary financial reports consistently since that start date without question or objection.

In 2020, the State introduced the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) accounting requirement for financial reporting. This was a change from the cash basis ‘mark to market’ accounting method EFH had been using consistently since 2008.

Under the GAAP accounting method, collateral held on repurchase agreements are viewed as liabilities despite title and custody ownership. For businesses providing financing structured as sales for repurchase agreement, this effectively double counts liabilities, resulting in a negative balance. This matter was discussed with the State which acknowledged the validity of the issue created by the GAAP rules.

As there was not a solution for this specific situation and as EFH was not actively trans-acting with clients and doing business in California, EFH elected to relinquish its license and resolve this accounting format matter in that manner. That resolution was memorialized in a recorded settlement of the regulatory matter.

Equities First Holdings, LLC (EFH) used its standard process and procedures and performed a thorough review of its “know your customer” practices. EFH was not part of, or at fault in, the Quindell situation.

EFH takes every precaution possible with performing its client due diligence but it cannot control the outside actions of its clients.

The Celsius Network was a client of EquitiesFirst when it filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection in 2022, delaying the resolution of disputes and a final settlement between Celsius and EquitiesFirst.

On May 22, 2026, Celsius, through GXD Labs, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Atlas Grove Partners,  and EquitiesFirst announced a comprehensive resolution and settlement, relating to loans made by EquitiesFirst to Celsius Network. The settlement, which includes $500 million in payments over time, resulted in the dismissal with prejudice of both an adversary proceeding originally filed in September 2023, and a related arbitration.

EquitiesFirst’s business and clients are unaffected by the settlement, which allows the firm to move on from a complex issue and support growing demand from clients. The payments have already been planned and accounted for by EFH.

“We appreciate the collaboration with GXD Labs to put this matter behind us,” said Al Christy, Jr., Founder and Chief Executive Officer, EquitiesFirst. “EquitiesFirst looks forward to continuing to be a leading provider of progressive capital throughout the world just as we’ve been since the firm was founded 24 years ago.”