Court Slams Kitchen, Backs CFTC’s Long Arm Over Crypto Trevor Kitchen lost his fight to dodge CFTC jurisdiction this week when the D.C. Circuit ruled that the agency can reach him even though he lives and trades abroad. The court’s 3-0 decision keeps a $1.2 million penalty in place and sends a blunt message: if…
CFTC RULING DELIVERS BLOW TO BITCOIN FUTURES EVASION The Ninth Circuit just handed the CFTC a decisive win against a crypto trader who claimed his Bitcoin operations fell outside federal oversight. In a 2014 decision that is resurfacing in today’s regulatory climate, the court ruled that Bitcoin qualifies as a commodity under the Commodity Exchange…
**COURT FREEZES 24 CRYPTO WALLETS IN IRS SWEEP** A federal judge in Washington just green-lit the government’s seizure of two dozen cryptocurrency accounts tied to an IRS tax-evasion probe. The ruling hands prosecutors a powerful new precedent: crypto isn’t a safe harbor from traditional financial subpoenas. The case began when IRS agents traced a string…
SEC Hits Binance With Sweeping Injunction as Appeals Court Eyes Crypto Future The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia just issued a preliminary injunction forcing Binance to halt its unregistered securities offerings and tether its U.S. assets, escalating the SEC’s campaign against the world’s largest crypto exchange. The ruling lands days after the…
Delaware Court Slams Door on Crypto IP Theft Claims Diamond Fortress Technologies and its founder Charles Hatcher II just lost their bid to keep a Delaware court open for what they claim was a high-stakes heist of facial-recognition code by a former partner. The Superior Court dismissed the entire case, ruling that the company’s claims…
U.S. CFTC chief puts staff on notice to create crypto regulations if Clarity Act fails The chair of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has directed agency staff to be prepared to draft crypto-related regulations in the event that the proposed Clarity Act does not become law. Why it matters: The instruction signals that…
COURT SLAMS SEC FOR TREATING BITCOIN FUNDS UNEQUALLY The D.C. Circuit just forced the SEC to reconsider its rejection of Grayscale’s spot Bitcoin ETF, ruling the agency failed to explain why it green-lit similar Bitcoin futures products while blocking the spot version. The decision hands the asset manager a major win and signals the Commission’s…
CFTC WINS ROUND TWO AGAINST DONELSON IN CRYPTO SWEEP The Seventh Circuit just handed the Commodity Futures Trading Commission a decisive victory that strengthens federal oversight of crypto trading platforms. By affirming the district court’s ruling against James Donelson, the appeals court confirmed that his unregistered trading operation violated the Commodity Exchange Act—sending a clear…
Coinbase v SEC: Third Circuit Deals Fresh Blow to Crypto Exchange The Third Circuit just handed the SEC another weapon in its war on crypto exchanges. Coinbase’s bid to escape agency oversight collapsed when the court upheld the Commission’s refusal to write new crypto rules, leaving the exchange exposed to enforcement without the regulatory clarity…
Ethereum Jumps 18% As Spot Volume Surges Across Exchanges Ethereum rose 18% amid a broad pickup in spot trading activity across major exchanges, according to the information provided. The move coincided with a noticeable surge in spot volume, suggesting heavier participation in direct ETH buying and selling rather than purely derivatives-driven activity. Spot volume refers…
GnosisDAO Approves Gnosis Chain Shift Toward Ethereum Rollup Model GnosisDAO has approved a proposal to shift Gnosis Chain toward an Ethereum rollup model, marking a strategic change in how the network plans to scale and secure its transactions. The decision signals an intent to align Gnosis Chain more closely with Ethereum’s rollup-centric roadmap, where execution…
Optimism-funded team’s deciding vote shifts $49 million in OP tokens away from users A governance decision involving an Optimism-funded team has redirected roughly $49 million worth of OP tokens away from users, after the team cast what was described as the deciding vote. Based on the information provided, the key development is that a group…
Bitcoin’s jump above $71,000 sets up bullish golden cross pattern Bitcoin moved above $71,000, a price level that has drawn attention from market watchers because it coincides with the formation of a commonly followed technical signal known as a “golden cross.” A golden cross occurs when a shorter-term moving average rises above a longer-term moving…
KALSHI WINS ROUND ONE AS CFTC LOSES CONTROL A federal appeals court in Washington just handed prediction-market operator Kalshi a decisive victory, refusing the CFTC’s emergency request to halt trading on election contracts while the agency appeals a lower-court ruling. The decision keeps Kalshi’s markets live for now and signals that judges may be skeptical…
Judges Hand Blockchain Startup a Texas-Size Delay A Texas appeals court just handed crypto miners a short-term reprieve and a long-term headache. In a rare mandamus ruling, the Eighth Court of Appeals ordered a lower-court judge to pause a $53 million foreclosure on Envy Blockchain’s 125-megawatt data-center site in West Texas, signaling that property-rights fights…
How Bitcoin Hardware Wallets Supported Users During the Coldcard Crisis The information provided does not include any details about the “Coldcard crisis,” what occurred, who was affected, or what actions other Bitcoin hardware wallet providers took in response. Without those facts, it is not possible to write a news story that accurately explains what happened,…
Court Blocks CFTC’s Last-Minute Bid to Gag Kraft In a blunt order, the Seventh Circuit has refused the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s attempt to muzzle Kraft Foods and Mondelēz from talking about the agency’s long-running wheat-futures manipulation case. The panel said the CFTC’s emergency petition for a writ of mandamus came too late, lacked merit,…
SEC Wins Fresh Win Over Bilzerian, Crypto Market Watches The D.C. District Court has just slammed the door on Paul Bilzerian’s latest attempt to wriggle out of a 22-year-old injunction that bars him from raising money or launching new ventures without SEC oversight. The ruling keeps Bilzerian under the Commission’s thumb, a reminder that old…
COURT SLAPS SEC FOR OVERREACH IN MAJOR CRYPTO CASE Federal judges just clipped the SEC’s wings in a landmark crypto ruling that could reshape how digital assets are regulated. The court found the agency exceeded its statutory authority when it pursued enforcement actions against a major token issuer, signaling a judicial check on federal power…
Judge Slaps CFTC for Overreaching on Trust’s Futures Trades The Seventh Circuit just told the CFTC it went too far when it tried to force a family trust into registration and penalties for trading futures contracts. In a sharp rebuke, the court ruled that the Conway Family Trust never met the legal definition of a…
