Author: Nerd Bot

COURT STRIPS DONELSON OF “NOT A FUTURE” DEFENSE The Seventh Circuit just told commodity-trading promoter James Donelson that calling his scheme “something else” won’t dodge the CFTC. In a brisk, precedent-setting opinion, the three-judge panel ruled that Donelson’s contracts—marketed as simple profit-sharing notes—were in fact off-exchange retail commodity transactions squarely under the agency’s jurisdiction. The…

Crypto Exchange CoinEx Is Shutting Down After Nine Years, Giving Users Until December to Cash Out Crypto exchange CoinEx is shutting down after nine years of operation, according to the announcement. Users will have until December to withdraw their funds before the platform closes. The shutdown marks the end of CoinEx’s nine-year run in the…

Coinbase Wins First Round as SEC Authority Faces Scrutiny The Third Circuit just handed Coinbase a narrow but symbolically powerful victory, rejecting the SEC’s attempt to block the exchange’s petition for review of the agency’s denial of a rulemaking petition. That decision signals that federal courts may not rubber-stamp the Commission’s refusal to clarify crypto…

India Begins Tokenizing Its $620 Billion Corporate Bond Market India has started testing blockchain-based issuance and settlement for corporate bonds, marking an early move to bring distributed-ledger technology into a corporate debt market valued at about $620 billion. The pilot, launched by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), is branded “Demat 2.0” and…

MEXC Reports Interception of More Than 38 Million USDT in Risk-Related Funds MEXC said its July–August security report recorded the interception of more than 38 million USDT in funds identified as related to security risks. The exchange also reported that its futures insurance fund reached 792 million USDT during the period. Insurance funds are designed…

Why banks should stop worrying and learn to love the Clarity Act No source information was provided beyond the headline, so there are not enough verified details to write a factual news story about the Clarity Act, its provisions or its impact on banks.

Two Robinhood engineers charged with insider trading using Hyperliquid perpetuals Two engineers at Robinhood have been charged with insider trading involving perpetual contracts traded on Hyperliquid, according to the information provided. The case connects employees of a major crypto and trading platform with activity on a decentralized derivatives venue. Hyperliquid perpetuals are derivative contracts that…

SEC Chair Pushes Crypto Self-Custody in New Regulatory Framework The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed a new set of rules called “Regulation Crypto Assets”, aiming to create what the agency described as a clearer, “fit-for-purpose” framework for certain investment contracts involving crypto assets. In a statement accompanying the proposal, SEC Chair Paul Atkins…

Crypto Clarity Act barrels toward disappointment barring last-minute Senate turnaround The U.S. Senate failed to advance the so-called Clarity Act on Sept. 15, dealing a setback to the cryptocurrency industry’s top legislative priority and sending crypto-related stocks lower, according to Bloomberg. The bill, designed to establish a clearer market structure framework for digital assets, fell…

KALSHI WINS: COURT SLAPS CFTC FOR BLOCKING ELECTION BETS Kalshi just beat the CFTC in federal court. The D.C. Circuit refused to pause a lower-court order that forces the agency to let the prediction market list contracts on U.S. elections, exposing a key fault line between regulators and crypto-native exchanges. The case began when Kalshi…

COURT BLOCKS TEXAS BLOCKCHAIN RAID Texas appeals court halts a surprise raid on Envy Blockchain, ruling that state regulators and sheriffs overstepped their authority when they seized mining equipment without proving the company posed an imminent threat to public safety. The Eighth District’s decision slams the brakes on aggressive enforcement tactics and signals that crypto…

Court Forces CFTC to Hand Over Kraft Documents The Seventh Circuit has ordered the CFTC to surrender internal documents to Kraft and Mondelēz, ending a years-long fight over what regulators must disclose when they settle manipulation cases. The ruling tightens the leash on an agency that has grown comfortable keeping its investigative files secret. The…

Court Blocks Bilzerian’s New Bid to Dodge SEC Ban A federal judge in Washington just shut down Paul Bilzerian’s latest attempt to wriggle out of a 2001 injunction that bars him and his family from launching new lawsuits without SEC approval. The ruling keeps a two-decade-old financial-fraud sanction alive, signaling that regulators still hold the…

COURT SLAPS SEC IN COINBASE APPEAL — RULING REWRITES CRYPTO ENFORCEMENT The Second Circuit just handed Coinbase a partial victory that chips away at the SEC’s long-held assumption that almost every token is a security. Judges ruled the agency cannot treat secondary-market trading of already-issued tokens as an ongoing “investment contract” unless it shows fresh…

Bitcoin gives back Monday’s gain as Clarity Act odds fade on Polymarket Bitcoin slid 1.7% since midnight UTC to $76,862, reversing a late Monday rally that had carried the asset as high as $79,427. The pullback coincided with a sharp drop in prediction-market expectations that the U.S. Clarity Act will become law this year. On…

COURT DECLARES CFTC CAN SUE TRUSTEES, NOT JUST TRUSTS In a ruling that expands regulators’ reach, the Seventh Circuit held that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission can bring enforcement actions directly against trustees of commodity-trading trusts, not merely the trusts themselves. The decision reverses a lower court’s dismissal and sends the case back for further…

Less Than 10 Billionaires Have Actually Kept Their Promise to Give Away Their Fortune Fewer than 10 billionaires have followed through on promises to give away their entire fortunes, according to the information provided. The figure highlights the gap between publicly stated philanthropic commitments and the completion of those pledges. Announcing an intention to donate…