CFTC WINS: COURT UPHOLDS POWER OVER CRYPTO FRAUD The Ninth Circuit just handed the CFTC a decisive win in its decade-long battle against James Devlin Crombie, affirming that the agency can pursue fraud claims against crypto operators even when no futures contracts are involved. The ruling, issued in a case that began in 2011, confirms…
COURT FREEZES 24 CRYPTO WALLETS IN IRS TAX PROBE The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has granted the government’s request to seize or freeze twenty-four cryptocurrency accounts tied to an IRS tax-evasion probe. The ruling expands the government’s reach over digital assets in civil forfeiture actions and signals that crypto is no…
Court Hands SEC Partial Win Over Binance, Deals Fresh Blow to Crypto Exchanges A federal judge has ruled that the SEC can pursue fraud and unregistered securities claims against Binance and its U.S. arm, while tossing several counts that would have treated BNB and certain staking programs as securities. The decision keeps the case alive…
COURT SLAPS DOWN DELAWARE SUIT OVER ALLEGED COIN FRAUD Delaware’s Superior Court tossed a lawsuit brought by Diamond Fortress Technologies and its founder Charles Hatcher II, ruling that the crypto-related claims cannot proceed in the state’s business court. The decision narrows the window for plaintiffs to weaponize Delaware’s corporate-friendly venue against digital-asset ventures and signals…
UK Police Seize $1.4M in Bitcoin Traced to Shuttered Darknet Markets UK police have seized about $1.4 million in Bitcoin after tracing the funds to darknet marketplaces that have since been shut down. The seizure highlights how cryptocurrency linked to illicit online markets can remain traceable long after those platforms disappear. According to the information…
Grayscale Wins — SEC Spot Bitcoin ETF Rejection Overturned The D.C. Circuit just handed Grayscale a decisive win, vacating the SEC’s 2022 order that denied the firm’s bid to convert its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust into a spot ETF. In one stroke, the court exposed the agency’s reasoning as arbitrary and inconsistent with its earlier approvals…
CFTC Slams Door on “Not My Account” Defense A federal appeals court just handed the CFTC its clearest win yet in a crypto-futures case, ruling that a trader cannot escape liability simply by claiming he wasn’t the one pushing the buttons. The decision tightens the noose around remote “account managers” and signals that regulators can…
Court Hands Coinbase Major Win in SEC Showdown Coinbase just scored a rare procedural victory against the SEC in the Third Circuit. The appeals court ruled that the agency violated its own rules by refusing to consider Coinbase’s formal petition for clearer crypto regulations. That means the SEC’s “regulation by enforcement” strategy is now facing…
Russian Influence Network Used ChatGPT to Masquerade as Academic Experts An online influence network linked to Russia used ChatGPT to generate content that posed as commentary from academic experts, according to the information provided. The operation relied on AI-written text to give the appearance of credible, research-based analysis while masking its true origin. At the…
New York Warns of Fake Crypto and AI as Scam Losses Hit $8 Billion New York officials have issued a warning about a rise in scams that use fake cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence themes, as reported scam losses have reached $8 billion. The warning highlights how fraudsters are increasingly using the language and imagery of…
Judge Rules Trump Administration Illegally Retaliated Against Anthropic Over AI Red Lines A judge has ruled that the Trump administration illegally retaliated against Anthropic, the AI company behind the Claude models, after the firm drew “red lines” around how its technology should be used. The decision centers on the government’s response to Anthropic’s stated limits…
Bitcoin Privacy Wallet Sparrow Issues Update After AI Flags Fixes Sparrow Wallet, a Bitcoin-focused desktop wallet known for its privacy and coin control features, has issued a software update after an AI-based review flagged issues that were subsequently addressed in fixes. Details of the specific problems identified and the exact changes included in the update…
Court Slams CFTC Over Kalshi Election Contracts The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals just denied the CFTC’s emergency request to block Kalshi’s election contracts, marking a major blow to the agency’s efforts to keep political-event trading off U.S. exchanges. The decision effectively green-lights Kalshi’s markets on congressional control, exposing a deep rift between regulators who…
COURT SLAPS BRAKES ON ENVOY BLOCKCHAIN’S LAST-DITCH BID TO FREEZE ITS ASSETS A Texas appeals court just denied a last-second writ of mandamus that Envy Blockchain and its co-relators hoped would stop a lower court from seizing or freezing their crypto assets. The ruling slams the door on an extraordinary procedural maneuver, leaving the company…
The White Whale rises 10x in a week as Lighter plans a TGE and Saylor adds $109 million in Bitcoin Three separate developments drew attention across crypto markets this week: a sharp rise in an asset referred to as “The White Whale,” a token generation event (TGE) planned by a project called Lighter, and a…
CFTC WINS POWER GRAB OVER FOOD GIANTS Appeals Court Forces Kraft to Hand Over Trade Secrets to Regulators The Seventh Circuit just handed the Commodity Futures Trading Commission a major procedural victory in its long-running case against Kraft Foods. By granting the agency’s petition for mandamus, the appeals court ordered a reluctant district judge to…
Court Hands SEC Rare Win Over Old-Blood Raider’s Ghost A federal judge just revived a 35-year-old injunction against one of Wall Street’s most notorious raiders, signaling the SEC’s willingness to chase ancient ghosts when new-money crypto players test the same lines. Paul Bilzerian—already barred since 1989 from penny-stock schemes—tried to slip the leash by routing…
Court Says SEC Cannot Stretch “Investment Contract” to Cover Every Token The Supreme Court just clipped the SEC’s wings on crypto enforcement, ruling that not every digital token sale automatically qualifies as a securities offering. The decision came down this morning in a closely watched appeal involving a major exchange’s token distribution, and it forces…
Court Slams CFTC Overreach in Conway Trust Ruling The Seventh Circuit just gutted the CFTC’s attempt to treat a family trust’s hedging activities as illegal off-exchange futures trading. In a sharp reversal, the court ruled that the Conway Family Trust’s grain purchase contracts—designed to lock in prices for their farming operations—did not violate the Commodity…
Fifth Circuit Slaps Brakes on SEC’s Crypto Overreach A three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit has just narrowed the SEC’s long-standing claim that unregistered staking programs are “investment contracts.” The decision matters because it chips away at the agency’s ability to sweep decentralized finance activities under the 1933 Securities Act without showing a formal promoter-investor…
