Cravath Makes SEC Splash in D.C.

Senators to Propose Industry-Friendly Cryptocurrency Bill – WSJ

Among other objectives, the bill seeks to carve some cryptocurrencies out of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s jurisdiction. It also would create new concepts in the nearly 90-year-old securities laws that would allow issuers of some digital tokens to meet lighter disclosure requirements than public companies face.

SEC Chair Gary Gensler has said most cryptocurrencies meet the definition of a security and should register with the agency.

Elizabeth Holmes Won’t Testify in Ex-Boyfriend, Theranos COO’s TrialSince Balwani’s trial began, legal experts and curious onlookers alike have wondered whether Holmes might testify against Balwani in exchange for some leniency in her sentencing, although it’s not known whether she was offered that opportunity.They got their answer today, when the prosecution confirmed in an evidentiary hearing that Holmes would not in fact be called as a witness in Balwani’s trial, according to Law360 senior reporter Dorothy Atkins, who has been covering the case.

Opinion | From the Big Short to the Big Scam – The New York Times

You can ask the same question about crypto in general. I’ve been in a number of meetings in which skeptics ask, as politely as they can, what cryptocurrencies do that can’t be done more easily with more conventional means of payment. They also ask why, if crypto is the future, Bitcoin — which was introduced in 2009(!) — has yet to find any significant real-world uses. In my experience, the answers are always word salad devoid of concrete examples.

OK, criminals seems to find crypto useful; a recent Reuters investigation found that over the past five years the crypto exchange Binance has laundered at least $2.35 billion in illicit funds. But where are the legitimate applications?

Elon Has a New Bot Excuse

But in the merger agreement, there are also covenants, promises that Musk and Twitter make to each other about what they will do going forward, between the signing of the merger agreement and the closing. If Twitter breaches a representation, Musk still has to close unless the breach causes a material adverse effect. But if Twitter breaches a covenant, Musk can walk away: He doesn’t have to close unless Twitter “shall have performed or complied, in all material respects, with its obligations required under this Agreement.” There is no MAE requirement: You just have to comply with the covenants.

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Musk, as a non-lawyer, came up with a pretext that is like “Twitter told me something untrue about its bot problem, so I can walk away.” That sounds like it might work, but doesn’t work. But Musk’s lawyers have a better pretext. It’s something like “keep asking them for more information about their bot problem; eventually you’ll ask questions they won’t answer, and then you can walk away.”