Mark Cuban, the billionaire entrepreneur who has been quite active in the crypto ecosystem for the past year, is facing a class action lawsuit over his promotions of the bankrupt crypto brokerage firm Voyager Digital. The Moskowitz Law Firm filed a civil suit in the United States District Court in Southern Florida against Cuban for promoting Voyager’s unregulated crypto products. The lawsuit demanded a jury hearing for the case. The lawsuit alleged Cuban also misrepresented the firm on numerous occasions, making dubious claims of it being cheaper than competitors and offering “commission-free” trading services. Cuban, along with Voyager Digital CEO …

The Department of Financial Protection and Innovation of California (DFPI) continues to bring actions against crypto interest account providers, failing to comply with the local law. After commanding BlockFi and Voyager to stop their offerings in the state, the DFPI issued a desist and refrain order to crypto lending firm Celsius. The order simply means that the crypto lending platform, which is undergoing the bankruptcy procedure, should stop all of its further operations on the sale and marketing of securities in the state of California. The order had been published on Aug. 8 and claims that Celsius Network and its …

Another top executive joins three co-founders of the crypto exchange BitMEX, pleading guilty in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The court case under the headline "U.S. v. Hayes et al." goes on for two years, with BitMEX management being indicted for violating the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act. According to the Wall Street Journal, on Aug. 8, a one-time head of business development at BitMEX, Gregory Dwyer, admitted his guilt of violating the Bank Secrecy Act in court. As part of a plea deal, Dwyer would pay a $150,000 fine. As Manhattan Attorney Damian …

When the United States Office of Government Ethics (OGE) released its Legal Advisory 22-04 on July 5, most attention was given to its conclusion that federal employees who own any amount of cryptocurrency or stablecoins whatsoever may not participate in regulation and policymaking that concerns crypto. The legal advisory (LA) raised some eyebrows, as de minimis exemptions, threshold amounts below which assets holdings are permissible, are common in the government. The LA is more comprehensible when seen in a larger context. What they were thinking The OGE does not grant interviews, so it was fortunate that a video of OGE …

The United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, has added 34 unregistered foreign entities to its Registration Deficient List, including at least six providing crypto-related services. In a Thursday announcement, the CFTC said it had expanded its list of firms that it requires to register with the CFTC for providing services including trading binary options, foreign currency or other products such as cryptocurrencies. The additions to the Registration Deficient List, or RED list, include B.O TradeFinancials, CryptoBO, Bitpay Options, CryptoSphereFX, Direct Cryptos and Prime Crypto FX. Since 2015, the CFTC has placed 202 companies on the RED List, warning …

The chief executive of the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority, or FCA, said the U.K. government will be working with its counterparts in the United States to address a regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies. In a speech for the Peterson Institute for International Economics on Thursday, FCA chief executive Nikhil Rathi said the U.S. and the U.K. will “deepen ties” on crypto regulation following discussions among regulators at the Financial Innovation Partnership on June 29. In addition, its government has coordinated with the U.S. and Singapore to launch an International Organization of Securities task force aimed at “decentralised finance and crypto …

According to a Tuesday notice from U.K. law firm Giambrone & Partners, a case brought by Fabrizio D’Aloia against Binance Holdings, Poloniex, gate.io, OKX, and Bitkub over allegations someone was operating a fraudulent clone online brokerage has resulted in a legal precedent offering a digital solution to serving someone. On June 24, the judge in the case allowed parties to be served by airdropping NFTs into wallets originally held by D’Aloia but stolen by unnamed individuals. Until now, Civil Procedure Rules in the U.K. allowed lawsuits to be served by personal services, mail, dropped off at a physical address, or …

The Treasury Committee of the United Kingdom’s House of Commons has called on the public to submit evidence related to the role of crypto’s risks and opportunities. In a Tuesday notice, the committee said it had opened an inquiry allowing people to write in about the role of crypto assets in the United Kingdom. The Treasury Committee said it would be exploring how the U.K. government, the Financial Conduct Authority, or FCA, and the Bank of England could balance regulation “to provide adequate protection for consumers and businesses without stifling innovation” as well how cryptocurrencies and distributed ledger technology could …

Jon Cunliffe, deputy governor for financial stability at the Bank of England, has called for a clear regulatory framework for crypto to address risks amid the recent market downturn. In a written speech at the British High Commissioner's Residence in Singapore on Tuesday, Cunliffe said regulators needed to “get on with the job” of incorporating crypto and blockchain into existing frameworks. He cited certain events leading up to what some have called the next crypto winter, including the price of Bitcoin (BTC) losing “70% of its value since November,” the collapse of Terra (LUNA) — now called Terra Classic (LUNC), …

Crypto lending platform Celsius has reportedly hired lawyers from Kirkland & Ellis LLP to advise on its restructuring options — the same firm that assisted Voyager Digital with its bankruptcy filing last week. According to a report from the Wall Street Journal on Sunday, the company has hired lawyers to advise on options, including a bankruptcy filing in place of the previously hired law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP. Kirkland & Ellis LLP describes itself as an international law firm that serves clients in private equity, M&A, and other corporate transactions, having been founded in 1909. The …

Crypto and Know Your Customer (KYC) guidelines seem to be an unhappy marriage — pseudonymity in the digital currencies’ DNA doesn’t match the old-school centralized protocols of traditional finance, but cohabitation is inevitable for the maturing industry. The tension never really goes away, but even before recent months’ market failures for crypto, the regulators have been clearly hogging the blanket, nudging the established platforms toward more strict authentication procedures and cutting the privacy-hardline players off the market. Cardano co-founder Charles Hoskinson expressed a popular opinion from the industry side in the United States Congress when he told legislators that no …

Web3 community members are fighting back against the United States Supreme Court’s ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade. On June 24, the landmark court case, which previously assured the right to have an abortion, was overturned, sparking a backlash among reproductive rights activists in the United States. Some activists have turned to Web3 solutions, creating decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) and nonfungible token (NFT) projects focused on raising awareness for women’s reproductive rights. One of the earliest of these efforts was demonstrated by Nadya Tolokonnikova, a member of the performance activist group Pussy Riot. Tolokonnikova told Cointelegraph that about three weeks …