Can Crypto Beat the SEC in Court?

Crypto is betting it can beat the SEC in court

A Grayscale victory could open doors for other industry players that see a bitcoin ETF as a way to open crypto to more investors. The SEC has consistently rejected the proposals, citing concerns that investors would not be adequately protected from fraud or market manipulation.

Another closely watched legal brawl is the SEC suit against Ripple, which the regulator accused of failing to register $1.4 billion of XRP as securities. The lawsuit, which was filed in 2020, was damaging to Ripple, causing the value of XRP to fall dramatically.

But the legal battle is now seen as a potential turning point for crypto. If Ripple wins, it could weaken the SEC’s argument that most cryptocurrencies should be registered as securities.

Twitter Still Wants Musk’s Money – Bloomberg

But it’s the pretext he chose, and he started tweeting about the deal being “on hold” because of the spam bot issue. He tweeted this “without any advance notice to the company.” Twitter’s executives found out the deal was on hold the same way we did, by reading Twitter, if in fact any of them read Twitter.

Twitter’s chief executive officer, Parag Agrawal, then tweeted an explanation of how Twitter estimates its bot numbers, and Musk replied with a poop emoji. You had better believe that poop emoji is in Twitter’s complaint…

If this case does not settle and ends in a landmark Delaware Chancery Court decision, that poop emoji had better be in the opinion. All the corporate law casebooks had better have that poop emoji.

The SEC’s Climate Rule Won’t Hold Up in Court

West Virginia v. EPA leaves no doubt that agencies must have a clear statement from Congress allowing them new powers if they are to try to transform America’s economy and society. The SEC should acknowledge the writing on the wall and stand down from this rulemaking. At the very least, it should reopen the comment period for its disclosure requirement, which closed some days before the Supreme Court’s decision, to let the public weigh in on how this tremendously important decision affects its rulemaking.

Why SEC Lawyers Will Keep Flocking to Private Practice

Data from Leopard Solutions’ attorney database shows that 17 attorneys left the SEC’s legal ranks in the first six months of 2021. A significant number of moves from government into private practice are expected in the first six months of a new administration. But in the first six months of 2022, the number of laterals leaving the watchdog rose to 18. That’s curious, say industry observers.

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“You’ve had an incredibly unusual market over the last two years, starting at the end of the second quarter of 2020 up until today. It’s probably the most robust lateral market I’ve seen in 20 years,” said Lowe. “If you’re an SEC lawyer and you see such a robust market, it’s hard to stay as happy as you were at your job for $240,000, when the other person who’s doing what you’re doing is now getting multiples of that—and probably not working very much harder.”

Crypto Lender Celsius Files for Bankruptcy After Freezing Withdrawals

Cryptocurrency lender Celsius Network Ltd. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the latest casualty of a $2 trillion crash that has wiped out some of the industry’s biggest names and exposed hundreds of thousands of individual investors to steep losses.

Celsius, which has more than 100,000 creditors, said it took the step to stabilize its business and work out a restructuring for all stakeholders. The filing was made in the Southern District of New York and listed Alameda Research, the trading firm co-founded by crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried, among major creditors.

Former Herbalife China Executive Ordered to Pay Fine After Defaulting in SEC Case

The former head of Herbalife Nutrition Ltd. ’s China subsidiary has been ordered to pay about $550,000 after he failed to respond to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission allegations that he bribed Chinese officials.

Yanliang Li, also known as Jerry Li, was ordered by a Manhattan federal court judge to pay a civil penalty after defaulting in an SEC lawsuit against him, the agency announced on Monday.

Judge freezes assets of crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital

A federal bankruptcy court has frozen the assets of Three Arrows Capital, the once-prominent crypto hedge fund that managed as much as $10 billion in assets until it fell into liquidation last month.

In an emergency hearing Tuesday, Judge Martin Glenn of the Southern District of New York granted a motion allowing liquidators to “transfer, encumber, or otherwise dispose” of any Three Arrows Capital assets located in the United States. In addition, the court authorized subpoenas for the founders, whose whereabouts are unknown.