ALSO: U.S. seized 50K BTC, LBRY loses securities battle with SEC and more |
The biggest crypto news and ideas of the day |
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LBRY Sold Tokens as Securities, Federal Judge Rules: In what is being seen as a striking precedent set in the U.S., a New Hampshire judge decided against blockchain-based streaming startup LBRY for illegally failing to register a token sale with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), saying the company had no "triable defense," on Monday. - Crypto lawyer Gabriel Shapiro noted the judge's interpretation of an investment contract – defined by the Depression-era "Howey Test" to determine whether something is a security – was wide enough to include Beanie Babies (an example the judge used in oral arguments).
- "The LBRY judge reasons that even if team is completely silent about efforts--no promises, no contracts--but premines tokens, that alone creates a sufficient expectation of profits from their efforts in common enterprise to pass the Howey test," Shapiro wrote.
- LBRY CEO Jeremy Kauffman, an outspoken critic of the SEC who is running for Senate in New Hampshire, intends to appeal the decision.
Coinbase Germany Ordered by Regulator to Tackle 'Organizational Deficiencies': The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) said U.S.-based crypto exchange Coinbase needs to address a range of issues including ensuring adequate risk management, staffing and IT systems, after uncovering "organizational deficiencies" during an audit. - Coinbase Germany, which received permission from BaFin to provide crypto custody services in the country last year, is "cooperating fully" to address the regulator's concerns.
US Seizes 50K Bitcoins Related to Silk Road Marketplace: The Department of Justice (DOJ) said the agency had seized 50,676 BTC tied to the darknet marketplace Silk Road in November 2021, marking its second largest seizure at the time. The bitcoins are worth $1.04 billion. - "This case shows that we won't stop following the money, no matter how expertly hidden, even to a circuit board in the bottom of a popcorn tin," U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams said in a statement.
- The owner of those BTC, James Zhong, pled guilty to one count of wire fraud on Friday related to a lucrative Silk Road exploit in 2012 and faces 20 years in prison. The darknet marketplace was founded in 2011 and is lauded as the proving ground for using BTC for payments,
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Putting the news into perspective |
(Alex Wong/Getty Images) The Story Behind Binance's Backroom Buyout of FTX Binance will reportedly buy FTX, a competitor crypto exchange that Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao was early to support and almost tanked this week. This represents a meteoric collapse for FTX and Alameda Research founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who went from being a poster-boy of crypto to one of its enemies after calling for tighter regulations. While the Binance-FTX deal, which is still being negotiated, will likely prevent a contagion (a la the collapse of Three Arrows Capital and Terra) it should hardly be celebrated, D.K. argues. Read the full article here. |
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- Wintermute Elbows Into Crowded DEX Market (The Defiant)
- BNB Sets All-Time High Against Bitcoin As Binance Buys FTX (Blockworks)
- What Happens When Crypto Meets Ted Lasso (NYT – paywalled)
- How a dodgy crypto influencer got rich on YouTube and Twitter—while the platforms and the SEC failed to act (Fortune)
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