Court Slaps CFTC, Bars Commodity-Style Fishing Trip CFTC’s demand for 14 years of Kraft’s internal documents was declared overbroad and unenforceable by the Seventh Circuit, curbing the agency’s power to snoop through trader records without a clear link to a specific violation. The ruling signals that regulators can’t treat commodity desks like open books, and…
COURT SNAPS BILZERIAN’S FINAL GAG ON SEC A federal judge in Washington just tore up a two-decade-old gag order that had kept the SEC from telling the world what it already knew about Paul Bilzerian. The ruling matters because it shows how hard it is for anyone—crypto whale, token founder, or legacy grifter—to keep regulators…
Supreme Court Green-Lights State Crypto Crackdowns The Supreme Court just handed states a new weapon to regulate crypto platforms inside their borders even when those platforms have zero physical presence there. By refusing to block enforcement actions against out-of-state exchanges, the justices tilted the field toward aggressive state attorneys general and away from federal uniformity….
Ruling on Conway Trust Case Exposes CFTC’s Reach Over Retail Traders The Seventh Circuit just slammed the door on a wealthy family trust trying to wriggle out of CFTC oversight, ruling that even sophisticated investors who trade futures contracts through a trust remain squarely inside the agency’s jurisdiction. The decision is a quiet but important…
Fifth Circuit Slaps Down SEC’s Sweeping Crypto Power Grab A three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit just handed the SEC a stinging defeat, ruling that the agency exceeded its authority by attempting to regulate crypto assets that don’t neatly fit the traditional definition of “securities.” The decision signals a growing judicial skepticism toward the SEC’s…
Court Slams Crypto Broker, Reopens Door for SEC A New York appeals court just handed the SEC a new weapon in its war on unregistered crypto platforms. Regal Commodities v Tauber ends with a ruling that a broker’s digital-asset contracts may be treated as securities under New York law, giving regulators fresh grounds to pursue…
CFTC WINS MANDAMUS RULING, KRAFT LOSES SECRECY SHIELD The Seventh Circuit just handed the CFTC a rare procedural victory by granting mandamus and ordering Kraft to turn over internal documents the agency has chased for eight years. The ruling is narrow but the message is broad: when a federal regulator subpoenas trading records, companies cannot…
Cronos Erased Two Hours of Transactions to Reverse a $111 Million DeFi Exploit Cronos validators rolled back the network by 1 hour and 54 minutes—10,961 blocks—after an exploit tied to the Tectonic lending protocol. The move rewound chain history to a point before the suspicious activity, effectively removing the attack transactions from the canonical ledger….
COURT REJECTS CRYPTO SUIT MERGER — RULING COULD SPARK MORE FRAGMENTED LITIGATION A federal panel just denied a bid to consolidate three separate crypto-related lawsuits into one courtroom. The decision signals that courts may be less willing to bundle investor claims against exchanges and token issuers, potentially raising litigation costs and uncertainty across the sector….
Crypto Court Rejects SEC’s Staking-as-Security Claim The Fifth Circuit just shut down the SEC’s attempt to treat crypto staking as a security, ruling that staking rewards do not automatically qualify as investment contracts. The decision narrows the SEC’s reach over staking services, pushing back against its enforcement-first approach and giving exchanges and DeFi protocols a…
JUDGES PULL CFTC OFF MONEX—FOR NOW The Ninth Circuit just blocked the CFTC from pursuing a landmark fraud case against precious-metals dealer Monex, ruling that the agency’s new “retail commodity” theory can’t be used retroactively to punish trades that happened before the rule was even written. The decision instantly rewrites the regulatory map for any…
CFTC Keeps Grip on Crypto Futures as Court Backs Enforcement Power The D.C. Circuit just handed the Commodity Futures Trading Commission a decisive win in its turf war with crypto trader Trevor Kitchen, ruling that the agency can regulate certain digital-asset contracts as futures even when they trade on decentralized platforms. The decision keeps the…
CFTC WINS — CRYPTO PIONEER LOSES APPEAL The Ninth Circuit just handed the CFTC a major enforcement victory, affirming that Bitcoin and similar digital assets qualify as commodities under the Commodity Exchange Act. James Devlin Crombie, an early Bitcoin trader, lost his appeal after the agency proved he ran a fraudulent Ponzi scheme that lured…
COURT GREENLIGHTS IRS CRYPTO ACCOUNT SEIZURES The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia just handed the IRS a powerful new weapon against crypto holders. In a memorandum opinion issued in United States v. Twenty-Four Cryptocurrency Accounts, the court confirmed that federal agents can seize digital wallets under civil forfeiture rules, even when those…
SEC’s Binance Case Just Hit Its First Major Roadblock The Securities and Exchange Commission’s sprawling lawsuit against Binance suffered a decisive early defeat this week when a federal judge dismissed most of the agency’s claims, ruling that the Commission failed to show the exchange itself was operating as an unregistered securities dealer. The decision marks…
Delaware Court Hands Crypto Firm Rare Win Over SEC Tactics A Delaware judge just blocked the SEC from using a state court as a backdoor to extract records from Diamond Fortress Technologies, a crypto startup the agency suspects may have sold unregistered tokens. The ruling matters because it signals courts are growing skeptical of the…
Cypherpunk distances itself from Robinhood blockchain token as Zcash debate intensifies Nasdaq-listed Cypherpunk Technologies, one of the two known public companies with exposure to Zcash’s treasury ecosystem, has moved to clarify its relationship to a token circulating on Robinhood’s blockchain platform that uses the Zcash ticker. According to snippets shared from the company’s messaging, Cypherpunk…
Grayscale Wins: Court Forces SEC to Revisit Bitcoin ETF Denial The D.C. Circuit just handed Grayscale a decisive win, vacating the SEC’s order that blocked the firm’s spot Bitcoin ETF. The ruling turns on the agency’s failure to explain why it approved Bitcoin futures ETFs but rejected the spot version, creating a regulatory double standard…
CFTC WINS: DONELSON’S DEFI ESCAPE HATCH SLAMS SHUT The Seventh Circuit just handed the CFTC a clean win in its case against James Donelson, ruling that his crypto trading operation—built on promises of “automated” returns and 24/7 market access—qualifies as a commodity pool under federal law. The decision erases any doubt that crypto trading systems,…
Satoshi-Era Bitcoin Wallet Moves 600 BTC After 16 Years A Bitcoin wallet associated with the network’s early years has moved 600 BTC after remaining inactive for 16 years. The transaction marks the reactivation of a wallet that had not recorded movement for more than a decade and a half. No information was provided about the…
