Regal Commodities v Tauber Appellate Court Slaps Down Trader’s Crypto Defense A New York appellate panel just handed crypto traders a hard lesson: you cannot dodge a commodities contract simply by calling the asset “decentralized.” The ruling keeps a $2.4 million judgment alive and signals that judges will treat crypto the same way they treat…
Bitcoin Gains 44% in Second-Best Q3 as Ethereum Rises 71% Bitcoin rose 44% during the third quarter, marking its second-best quarterly performance for the period. Ethereum outpaced Bitcoin, gaining 71% over the same quarter. The contrasting returns highlight the strength of the broader crypto market during Q3, with both of the two largest digital assets…
CFTC WINS POWER GRAB, COURTS BEND TO AGENCY A federal appeals court just handed the Commodity Futures Trading Commission a major procedural victory, ordering a lower court to transfer a high-stakes enforcement case back to the agency’s preferred venue. The ruling strengthens the CFTC’s hand in choosing where and how it fights enforcement battles, a…
COURT REJECTS BID TO CENTRALIZE CRYPTO TOKEN SUITS Three separate suits against Anthony Motto and his crypto token now face different judges after a federal panel refused to combine them. The move leaves the cases scattered across Illinois, California, and Pennsylvania, forcing Motto’s defense to fight on three fronts at once. The litigation began when…
Altcoins rally across the board as bitcoin consolidates near $84,000 Altcoins broadly outperformed bitcoin over the past 24 hours as the largest cryptocurrency held steady near $84,000 and risk appetite shifted toward smaller tokens. Quant led the move, jumping 39% on the day. The rally was notably wide: 93 of the 100 assets in the…
**Fifth Circuit Slaps SEC, Says Crypto Sales Alone Don’t Equal Investment Contracts** The Fifth Circuit just told the SEC it cannot simply point to secondary-market crypto trades and call them unregistered securities offerings. In a sharp reversal of the agency’s long-standing enforcement approach, the appeals court ruled that merely selling tokens on an exchange does…
Crypto ATM Numbers Fall to 2021 Levels Amid Regulatory Crackdown The number of crypto ATMs has fallen to levels last seen in 2021, as the sector faces increasing regulatory scrutiny. Crypto ATMs allow users to buy or sell digital assets through physical kiosks. Their decline marks a reversal from the rapid expansion seen in earlier…
Monex Wins Big as Appeals Court Slams CFTC Overreach The Ninth Circuit just gutted the CFTC’s case against Monex, ruling that the agency lacked authority to police the firm’s leveraged precious-metals contracts because customers actually took physical delivery. The decision reins in the regulator’s reach over retail commodities trading and signals that courts are willing…
Judge Slams CFTC Overreach in DeFi Futures Case The D.C. Circuit just handed the CFTC a stinging rebuke, ruling that a DeFi protocol operator cannot be held liable for unregistered futures trading when the underlying contracts are created by anonymous users and settled in code. Trevor Kitchen, who built a decentralized perpetuals platform, walked away…
In Her Final Weeks, SEC’s Peirce Calls for Ending the KYC “Panopticon” In the final weeks of her tenure at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Commissioner Peirce called for an end to what she described as the Know Your Customer, or KYC, “panopticon.” KYC rules require financial institutions and other regulated businesses to collect…
CFTC Wins Round Two, Crypto Traders Face New Reality The Ninth Circuit has handed the Commodity Futures Trading Commission a decisive win over James Devlin Crombie, affirming that his Bitcoin-based trading operation ran afoul of federal commodities law. In a ruling that could ripple across unregulated crypto exchanges and DeFi protocols, the court made clear…
SEC LOSES GROUND IN CRYPTO ACCOUNT SEIZURE BATTLE Federal prosecutors just lost a round in their attempt to seize twenty-four crypto wallets tied to a cyber-heist. The D.C. district court refused to rubber-stamp the government’s forfeiture claim, demanding clearer evidence that the wallets are traceable to criminal proceeds. The ruling signals that courts are no…
SEC Slaps Binance with $4B Fine in Landmark Ruling U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson just ordered Binance Holdings and its founder Changpeng Zhao to pay a combined $4.3 billion in penalties, disgorgement, and fines — the largest-ever crypto enforcement hit. The ruling ends a bruising 18-month battle that began when the SEC accused Binance…
Strategy Wants Its Preferred Stock Dividends to Accrue 365 Days a Year Strategy is seeking to have dividends on its preferred stock accrue throughout all 365 days of the year. The approach would treat every calendar day as part of the dividend-accrual period, rather than limiting accrual to business days or another shorter convention. Preferred…
Court Hands Crypto Founders Rare Delaware Win Over Corporate Control Diamond Fortress Technologies and its co-founder Charles Hatcher just scored a Delaware court victory that could ripple through every token project still structured as a Delaware corporation. The ruling hands founders breathing room when investors try to seize control via board fights, and it signals…
Grayscale Smashes SEC’s Bitcoin ETF Wall Grayscale Investments just forced the SEC to confront its own inconsistency on spot Bitcoin ETFs. The D.C. Circuit threw out the agency’s rejection of Grayscale’s conversion request, ruling that the Commission failed to explain why it green-lighted similar futures-based products but slammed the door on the spot version. The…
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth Holds Bitcoin in a Coinbase Wallet, Filing Shows U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth disclosed a personal Bitcoin holding held in a Coinbase wallet, according to his annual financial disclosure. The filing includes two separate entries related to the Bitcoin position, placing its value within a reported range of $16,000 to $65,000….
Court Hands CFTC Sweeping Power Over Crypto “Trading Desks” The Seventh Circuit just told the CFTC it can chase anyone who runs a trading desk that moves digital assets, even if the trades never touch a regulated futures contract. The ruling keeps a $1.7 million penalty alive against James Donelson and sets a precedent that…
AI Agents Are Racing to Make Quantum-Safe Bitcoin Cheap—And Winning No supporting details were provided to explain which AI agents are involved, how quantum-safe Bitcoin technology is being developed, or what evidence shows that costs are falling.
Coinbase Wins Procedural Battle, SEC Authority Faces Scrutiny The Third Circuit just handed Coinbase a meaningful procedural win by agreeing to review the SEC’s refusal to clarify crypto rules. The court’s decision signals that regulators cannot simply ignore industry pleas for clarity while wielding enforcement power, a shift that could reshape how digital-asset firms challenge…
