Republic to Sell Digital Token Allowing Investors to Mirror SpaceX Performance

SpaceX Isn’t Publicly Traded. Republic Plans to Let Anyone Bet on It Anyway

An investment platform plans to use blockchain technology to sell investors exposure to SpaceX, another effort in an arms race to give regular traders access to hot startups.

Republic says it is starting to sell digital “tokens” that mirror the performance of private shares of Elon Musk’s rocket and satellite company starting this week. The investment platform, which offers retail investors access to investments typically limited to the wealthy, plans to eventually expand its tokenization to other high-profile private companies like artificial-intelligence firms OpenAI and Anthropic.

Republic’s plan is part of an array of efforts by crypto exchanges, brokerages and others to reinvent securities using similar blockchain technology that underpins bitcoin. Still largely untested with regulators, and even the underlying companies, the tokens are another attempt to trade on stocks that can’t be found on the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq.

Statement on Jury’s Verdict in Trial of Thomas F. Casey

Today, after a five-day trial and less than two hours of deliberation, a jury in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California found Thomas F. Casey liable for securities fraud.

Statement of SEC Division of Enforcement Acting Director Sam Waldon:

“We are pleased with the jury verdict holding the defendant liable for orchestrating a fraudulent securities offering, which targeted retirees’ retirement accounts with false promises of safety and security. The defendant induced more than 200 people to invest a total of over $10 million into Golden Genesis, a venture to supposedly create blood banks for selling human plasma from young donors for anti-aging treatments, based on false claims including that the investments would generate guaranteed high returns and be secured by the company’s assets. In reality, the funds were not secured and the defendant used investor funds to compensate himself and to prop up the scheme by paying back other investors, causing approximately $8 million in losses to the victims….”

How a Disgraced Financier Defrauded His Investors—and His Own Mother

When the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed its civil complaint against Ian O. Mausner on Monday afternoon in San Diego federal court, the agency alleged a familiar kind of financial fraud: false promises, diverted funds and violated fiduciary duties. But Mausner’s story is not merely one of professional misconduct. It is also, chillingly, one of personal betrayal.

David Oliwenstein, formerly with the SEC’s Division of Enforcement and now a New York partner at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, said in Mausner’s case, it was notable that the SEC under Chair Paul S. Atkins did not take the position that any particular cryptocurrency asset was a security, but rather that the investment in the funds satisfied the security requirement.

“The case mirrors the type of enforcement actions you would expect to see in a Republican-controlled commission with a focus on retail investor protection and concrete harm to investors trying to recoup investor losses,” Oliwenstein said. “I would not be surprised that, as the Atkins enforcement agenda unfolds, we see a lot more cryptocurrency enforcement actions like this one.”

Tone Portrait: Artificial Intelligence and MD&A

AI has changed things. As discussed in a June 16, 2025, Wall Street Journal opinion article entitled “Quarterly Reports are Written for AI” (here), Hebrew University Business School Professor Keren Bar-Hava notes that the use of AI has changed the way analysts study companies’ MD&A. As Professor Bar-Hava notes, with recent advances in AI, “anyone can analyze dozens of MD&A sections using tools like ChatGPT.” With a single prompt, “artificial intelligence can identify trends in tone, complexity and word choice, spotting patterns that once took teams of analysts weeks of work.” But that is not all.

If, as Professor Bar-Hava observes, AI can quickly analyze company MD&A, companies can use AI to shape their MD&A. The “most innovative companies” are already doing so. The companies “know their reports are being scanned, scored, and compared by machines before any human reads them. And they are writing accordingly.” The result is a “quiet but significant shift in corporate reporting.”

‘Language Whac-A-Mole’: Big Law Tries to Keep Up with the Trump Administration’s Word Targets

“I believe most firms are reframing and not retreating,” said attorney Scott Curran, founder and CEO of consulting firm Beyond Advisers. “They’ve conceded the [DEI] acronym,” said Curran. “They’ve made changes to firm materials, whether that be website or other collateral, but they’re continuing the work, and they’re talking about it as a firm in the leadership meetings and with their teams.”

And that’s where some law firms have been creative in adjusting websites. “I think a lot of it is the outward-facing communication—so the websites, the lingo that we’re using,” said law firm DEI consultant Amie Santos, who is founder and principal of AKS Advisors.

“A lot of people are dropping the terminology ‘equity’ and moving more towards ‘belonging,’ and ‘culture,’ and ‘inclusion.’ I think some of these groups are rethinking affinity groups and off-sites and their training, but at the core, the work is still being done. Looking at policies, retention, promotion, compensation—all of that work is still happening behind the scenes.”