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The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has asked a federal judge to deny Coinbase’s motion to dismiss a high-profile lawsuit alleging the exchange improperly offered unregistered sec urities. Coinbase previously contended the SEC abused its discretion. The exchange says the SEC exceeded its authority in bringing charges against the platform for dealing in crypto assets not registered as sec urities. However, the agency asserts it acted firmly within its jurisdiction in targeting alleged sec urities law violations. Also Read: Friend.Tech Users Fall Victim to SIM Swap Attack, Loses Ethereum JUST IN: 🇺🇸 SEC asks judge to deny Coinbase motion to dismiss its lawsuit. — Watcher.Guru (@WatcherGuru) October 3, 2023 Coinbase-SEC case has broad implications The closely watched case holds broad implications for the legal status of cryptocurrencies and the SEC’s scope of oversight. The crypto community is monitoring the outcome...

Grayscale Investment submitted an application with the SEC seeking to reshape its current Ethereum-based trust into an exchange-traded fund tied to Ether’s spot price. The conversion move was disclosed in a Form 19b-4 SEC filing made by the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) Arca, Grayscale’s chief legal officer Craig Salm confirmed via a post on X (formerly Twitter). If successful, the bid would convert the largest Ethereum-focused investment fund from a publicly traded private trust to a spot Ether ETF.  Today @Grayscale filed a 19b-4 to convert $ETHE to a spot #Ethereum ETF. The justification is simple: the recently effective #ETH futures ETFs are the same as spot ETH ETFs across the relevant regulatory factors. More in the PR here: https://t.co/mJDo4m0hgC — Craig Salm (@CraigSalm) October 2, 2023 Grayscale Ethereum Trust, which trades under the ticker ETHE, commands $5 billion in assets under management (AUM) and accounts for over 2% of ETH’s circulating supply at press t...

SEC says Stoner Cats 2 LLC raised $8 million from investors by offering unregistered securities of NFTs. Stoner Cats will refund the money to investors and pay a $1 million fine. SEC recently charged Impact Theory over allegations of similar violations. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged Stoner Cats 2 LLC over an unregistered offering of NFTs. According to the regulator, the NFTs creator raised $8 million from investors in a project that financed the animated web series show dubbed Stoner Cats. Among notable personalities to feature in the show (via voiceovers) were Ashton Kutcher, Chris Rock, Jane Fonda, Mila Kunis and Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin. NFTs were offered as securities In its order, the SEC said the charge shows that it’s not about what the NFTs are based on or underlying asset, but rather the “economic reality of the offering.” The SEC’s complaint noted that Stoner Cats wasn’t exempt f...

The SEC has requested permission to submit undisclosed documents under seal in its civil lawsuit against Binance, Binance.US, and CEO Changpeng Zhao. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) submitted a request to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, asking for permission to file certain documents under seal in its civil case against Binance, its U.S. subsidiary Binance.US, and the CEO, Changpeng Zhao (CZ). The content of the SEC’s motion itself is sealed , sparking speculation around the possibility of sensitive or potentially incriminating details. Former SEC official John Reed Stark weighed in on the issue, suggesting that the SEC’s sealed motion could be linked to an ongoing criminal investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice. What’s Up With The Secret U.S. SEC Motion Relating to Binance? In the U.S. SEC/Binance litigation, the U.S. SEC has filed a sealed motion for leave to file documents under seal, according to an SEC court fili...

The SEC is set to make imminent rulings on Bitcoin ETF applications from five firms, with decisions expected before the Labor Day weekend . A cluster of filings for Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETF) sits on the desk of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), with decisions expected imminently—before the onset of the Labor Day holiday next week. Among the applicants are high-profile financial firms like Bitwise, BlackRock, VanEck, WisdomTree, and Invesco. Bitwise’s submission is slated for review by Sept. 1, while the remainder have until the following day for their applications to be assessed. It is widely speculated that the SEC will render its judgments before the long weekend kicks off. Prolonging decisions: A familiar tactic of the SEC? Not many are optimistic about swift approvals. The SEC’s track record suggests a tendency for deferring decisions on crypto-related filings. Just earlier this month, the regulatory body postponed its judgment on a spot ...

A US district judge recently issued a summary judgment finding that transactions in XRP do not constitute “investment contracts” and therefore are not securities under federal law. This ruling comes amid an ongoing legal dispute between Ripple Labs, the creator of XRP, and the Securities and Exchange Commission over whether XRP should be classified as a security or commodity. The judge’s decision states that the SEC did not adequately demonstrate that XRP holders had a reasonable expectation of profits derived from Ripple’s managerial efforts. Following this ruling, the market price of XRP increased substantially. Also read: BNB Chain Hacker Loses $30 Million In Liquidation Attorney John Deaton , who represents a group of XRP holders in a related lawsuit, argued in a recent post that the SEC’s action against Ripple has negatively impacted the adoption of XRP in the US market during the nearly three years since the suit was filed. The point her...

The U.S. SEC has several crypto assets on its r ADA r. In its recent lawsuit against Coinbase, it deemed SOL , ADA , MATIC, FIL, SAND, AXS, CHZ, FLOW, ICP, NEAR, VGX, DASH, and NEXO to be sec urities. In the other parallel lawsuit filed against Binance, BNB, BUSD, SOL , ADA , MATIC, FIL, ATOM, SAND, MANA, ALGO, AXS, and COTI were victims. After the securities allegations, these assets lost around $20 billion of their combined market value. However, a recent report brought to light that the aforementioned 19 crypto assets have been noting a rise in trading volume, bringing to light the maturation of the market and investors. According to data from CCData, the tokens’ overall share of trading has increased by about 2%, to around 13%. Source: Bloomberg, CCData Also Read: Bitcoin Miner Earns 5019590600% Profit After Holding 150 BTC for 13 Years Solana Marches ahead, Cardano Lags Behind A few assets have recovered faster than others. Solana, which had initial...

The long-standing legal disagreement between the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Ripple has attracted considerable public interest for a duration of over two years. The SEC asserts that Ripple promoted its digital currency, XRP, as a sec urity, thereby raising potential implications for its future worth and expansion. Also read: Pepe Coin Price Plunges By 17% Amidst Sell-Off The resolution of this case carries substantial importance for the cryptocurrency sec tor and the regulatory issues it faces. David Schwartz, the CTO of Ripple , recently spoke out regarding the deadline for the ongoing lawsuit verdict. I know waiting is annoying and we'd all love to have a ruling on summary judgment motions as soon as possible, but I wouldn't think anything was wrong, unusual, or strange until at least the end of September. — David "JoelKatz" Schwartz (@JoelKatz) July 10, 2023 Ripple CTO believes that the delay in a judgment is not unusual ...

Earlier this month, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed charges against the parent companies of Binance.com and Binance US, plus their founder, Changpeng Zhao (CZ). The charge is similar to the SEC’s December 2022 civil action against the parent companies of FTX and its founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF). In both lawsuits, the SEC alleges the unregistered offering of securities to US residents. Binance never registered its namesake tokens — BNB and BUSD — nor its various interest-earning products with the SEC. FTX never registered various crypto asset securities that it listed for US trading, including Solana (SOL), Algorand (ALGO), Cardano (ADA), and many others. The SEC also alleges that Binance.com secretly controlled some assets and operations of Binance US. FTX.com also secretly controlled the wallets used to hold FTX.US customers’ digital assets. Binance and FTX both borrowed the banking relationships of non- exchange entities controlled by the ...

Just a day after the Securities and Exchange Commission targeted Binance with a lawsuit, the SEC has made its next move, In one of the most recent updates, the SEC has sued crypto exchange Coinbase. The commission stated that the exchange has never registered with the SEC as a broker. Additionally, the lawsuit also claims that the exchange evaded the disclosure regime that has been put in place for the sec urities market. The SEC has also stated that Coinbase made billions of dollars unlawfully by facilitating the buying and selling of crypto asset sec urities. JUST IN: SEC says #Coinbase made "billions of dollars unlawfully facilitating the buying and selling of crypto asset sec urities." — Watcher.Guru (@WatcherGuru) June 6, 2023 Coinbase made billions of dollars unlawfully, says SEC The details from the SEC’s complaint states that the exchange has unlawfully facilitated the buying and selling of crypto asset sec urities. The SEC states that Coinbase...

Attorney Deaton reacts to Ripple CEO’s new prediction.  Attorney John Deaton, a pro- XRP lawyer and CryptoLaw founder, has joined XRP enthusiasts in reacting to Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse’s prediction on the final resolution of the SEC vs. Ripple lawsuit.  As  reported  earlier, Garlinghouse speculated in a fireside chat at the “Redefine Tomorrow 2023 Summit” that the company’s legal battle against the U.S. SEC will be resolved in weeks and not months.  “In terms of where things stand today, I’ll try not to get too much into the legal wigs. You’re right that I feel very confident that we’ll see a decision from the court this year. In fact, I’ll guess in weeks, not months,” said Garlinghouse.  Attorney Deaton Reacts to Garlinghouse’s Prediction  Interestingly, many XRP enthusiasts have been reacting to Garlinghouse’s prediction since it went viral. Reactions to the prediction were a mix of excitement and anxiety.  Some assert that the prediction is genuine, given...

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has replied to crypto exchange Coinbase’s petition that demanded it outline and adopt new regulations on crypto and digital tokens. In its petition, initially submitted in July of last year, Coinbase argued that most of the tokens traded on its platform shouldn’t be defined as securities. It also wants the SEC to define what tokens are classified as such. The SEC didn’t immediately reply to the petition, instead sending Coinbase a Wells notice urging it to comply with existing law on its various offerings and services including its staking services and the Coinbase Earn program. Eventually, Coinbase sued the SEC requesting that the federal appellate court in Philadelphia issue a mandamus . A mandamus is an uncommon legal mechanism whereby, in certain circumstances, a public entity is required to take a particular action in line with its statutory mandate. Coinbase claps back at SEC proposal, chief exec targets Gary G...

Tether's USDT has seen its market capitalization rebound to nearly $70 billion as the SEC ordered Paxos to stop issuing BUSD, the third-largest stablecoin. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) wants to sue Paxos for issuing and listing stablecoin Binance USD (BUSD) to the benefit of its top-rival stablecoin Tether (USDT), whose market capitalization has risen to multi-month highs.  BUSD market cap drops by $2 billion The SEC asserts that BUSD, a U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin , is a security, noting that Paxos has violated investor protection laws by white-labeling it. Related:  Paxos ‘categorically disagrees’ with the SEC that BUSD is a security Since Feb. 13 when the news broke, the BUSD market cap has lost roughly $2 billion, down to around $14 billion as of Feb. 16 — the lowest since January 2022.  BUSD circulating supply. Source: Messari As Cointelegraph reported, Binance has seen its withdrawals and BUSD redemptions surge post-Paxos crackdown. USD Coin market cap...