Amicus Briefs Fly in Grayscale's EFT Appeal

Coinbase Piles On Support for Grayscale’s EFT by Filing Amicus Brief in Effort to Reverse SEC’s Rejection

Coinbase filed an amicus brief supporting a Grayscale Investments lawsuit against the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for rejecting the firm’s proposal for a spot bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund, adding to one filed Tuesday by three trade groups representing a wide swath of the crypto industry supporting the lawsuit.

In the brief submitted Tuesday to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the Blockchain Association, the Chamber of Digital Commerce and Coin Center noted that the SEC had “categorically denied every proposal” to list ETFs that hold bitcoin, despite approving multiple ETPs that hold bitcoin derivatives (specifically, futures contracts).

“The Commission’s ‘thumb on the scale’ approach does not withstand scrutiny,” the groups said, calling spot ETFs “ideally suited” for investors who desire exposure to bitcoin. The groups added that the SEC had allowed “similar, riskier products to enter the market,” yet ETFs “plainly satisfy regulatory requirements for listing on a national securities exchange.”

SEC Climate Rules Pushed Back Amid Bureaucratic, Legal Woes

The Securities and Exchange Commission will miss a self-imposed October deadline for final rules as it continues to sift through thousands of public comments and factors in a June Supreme Court ruling that endangers the agency’s normally broad authority to regulate Wall Street.

The commission was forced to reopen its comment file earlier this month after a technical glitch may have prevented some feedback on the March climate proposal and other rules from reaching the agency. That has only added to the challenges in completing requirements for companies to disclose their carbon footprint, including greenhouse gas emissions from their supply chains.

“I can’t see how that process leads to the commission producing a final rule before the end of the year,” Evan Williams, senior director at the the US Chamber of Commerce’s Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness, said last week.

Prosecutors argue “insider trading” claim in the OpenSea case is accurate

Chastain argued the use of “insider trading” to describe his alleged actions is “inflammatory” and doesn’t have anything to do with the accusations he faces, adding a jury may be influenced by the term if his case is brought to trial.

He also added that “insider trading” only applies to securities and not to NFTs, a claim similarly made in August by his legal team, and the phrase was used to spark attention in the media to skew the jury’s view of him.

Prosecutors fired back, stating the phrase “accurately captures” the accusations made against him and the term isn’t “so inherently inflammatory” to warrant the “extreme measure” of having the term removed from his charges.

They also rebuked his claim of insider trading only applying to securities calling it a “legal error” and an “unduly cramped understanding of the phrase,” claiming it can be used to reference multiple types of fraud in which someone with non-public knowledge uses it to trade assets.

Decentraland, Sandbox Virtual Land in Metaverse Is Cheap and Very Risky

When crypto values sank this year, prices for virtual land, which is generally bought and sold with digital tokens, also plummeted. Average prices in Decentraland and The Sandbox, two popular blockchain-based online worlds, declined roughly 80% between early November 2021 and the beginning of this month, according to data compiled by analytics company WeMeta. Prices of Bitcoin, the biggest digital coin by market value, sank almost 70% in the same period.

The number of sales also tumbled. In November 2021, Sandbox and Decentraland had more than 6,000 transactions combined, according to WeMeta. Last month, sales fell below 1,000.

JPMorgan Adds Crypto Policy Head After Dimon ‘Ponzi Scheme’ Quip

JPMorgan Chase & Co. has hired a new head of digital assets regulatory policy, less than a month after CEO Jamie Dimon told lawmakers that cryptocurrencies are “decentralized Ponzi schemes.”

Aaron Iovine joined the company this week as executive director for digital assets regulatory policy, a newly created role, a JPMorgan spokeswoman confirmed. He was previously head of policy and regulatory for cryptocurrency lender Celsius Network Ltd., whose bankruptcy filing has roiled the digital asset market.

U.K. Regulator’s Enforcement Director to Step Down Next Year

The executive director for enforcement and market oversight at the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority, which also supervises compliance by U.K. cryptocurrency firms with anti-money-laundering laws, said he would step down next spring, the agency said Tuesday.

Mark Steward was appointed to his role at the finance regulator seven years ago. He was known for leading some of the FCA’s most complex and high-profile enforcement actions, including ones against major global banks and individuals, the agency said.