Lawyers for major fast food chain Jack in the Box have filed a lawsuit against crypto exchange FTX US for copyright and trademark infringement of its "Jack" mascot. According to federal court documents filed in the Southern District of California on Nov. 3, Jack in the Box's legal team is requesting a jury trial, claiming FTX US’ Moon Man character — Lou Nar, an adult male typically dressed in polo shirts with the head of a moon used for Major League Baseball events — is a ripoff of the company’s current version of its Jack mascot. The fast food company …

Blockchain Global (BGL), the parent company of the now-defunct Australian crypto exchange ACX, has collapsed with outstanding debts of $15 million. On Sept. 13, The Victoria Supreme Court placed a freeze order on 117.33 Bitcoin (BTC) —worth around $7.1 million — held by two companies behind the exchange, BGL and ACX Tech. Three days later the companies were ordered to disclose the full scope of assets held locally and abroad but failed to meet the Sept. 30 deadline. The Australian Financial Review reported that BGL has since entered voluntary administration, with a figure of $15 million (AUD $21 million) owed …

A Connecticut Jury has found that digital assets linked to cryptocurrencies are not securities in what a defense lawyer called a world-first verdict. GAW Miners investor Stuart Fraser was cleared of liability in a fraudulent operation co-opted by ZenMiner LLC on Nov. 1. "It's the first case that we know of where a jury addressed whether cryptocurrency products were securities," one of the defendant’s representatives, Daniel Weiner from Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP, told Law360. The case against GAW Miners has been underway since 2017, when co-founder Homero Joshua Garza pled guilty to wire fraud. This left Frazer, a 41% …

The issuer of a controversial cryptocurrency that can only be sold in batches of $125 daily on a single exchange is facing pushback from an Australian law firm. Queensland-based law firm Salerno Law plans to file a lawsuit accusing BPS Financial Limited — the company behind the QOIN token — of engaging in misleading and deceptive conduct, pyramid selling of financial products, and failing to comply with financial services regulations. The lawsuit will seek $100 million in damages. Salerno Law, which specialises in crypto disputes, started collecting expressions of interest from investors and merchants who had incurred losses as a …

The Securities and Exchange Commission could be emerging victorious in the race to secure the leading role in regulating stablecoins. Additional clarity on the demarcation of regulatory mandates between the SEC, Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Treasury Department could come from the President’s Working Group for Financial Markets’ (PWG) report that was expected by the end of October but failed to arrive before the end of last week. The mandate to regulate cryptocurrency in the United States remains dispersed across a host of actors, and a single PWG report will not remedy this once and for all. Still, having …

The Indian government may be looking into establishing a legal framework for crypto as early as February based on digital currencies as an "asset." According to an Oct. 26 report from Indian news outlet Business Today, officials with the country's Finance Ministry said the potential legal framework would treat cryptocurrencies closer to commodities than currencies. If this legislation comes to fruition, it would represent a different approach than an outright ban on digital assets in the country which some Indian lawmakers have reportedly been considering. The officials added any potential law on cryptocurrencies in the country would likely come around …

Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Liquid has announced that its subsidiary firm, Quoine Corporation, has acquired a Type I Financial Instruments Business license under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act from the Japanese regulatory authorities. The approval will allow Liquid to commence derivatives trading on its platform, offering investment opportunities to both retail and institutional clients, although a specific date for launch was not disclosed. Founded in 2014, Liquid is one of the world’s largest crypto-fiat exchanges with in excess of 800,000 customers and a reported highest daily trade volume of $1.1 billion across 2021. The platform operates under Japan's Payment Services …

The stablecoin market has grown exponentially over the last few months due to the numerous advantages blockchain-based versions of fiat currencies have. But, when Facebook launched its cryptocurrency wallet Novi using Paxos’ stablecoin, some United States senators were quick to oppose it. Are they concerned about user data or monetary sovereignty? The social media giant which, according to its Q2 2021 report, has 2.9 billion monthly active users across all of its platforms, tapped Coinbase and Paxos for its Novi digital wallet project that kicked off its testing phase in the U.S. and Guatemala on Oct. 19. The pilot program …

Decentralized finance (DeFi) is shaping up to be one of the most important sectors within the blockchain industry. In just the last two years, DeFi's total value locked (TVL) — the total value of assets locked into various DeFi platforms — has steadily increased from $21 billion at the start of the year to over $100 billion today. DeFi represents a wide range of financial products and services, including the all too popular decentralized exchanges (DEX). Despite the explosive growth of DeFi's lending and borrowing products, insurance and even decentralized derivatives trading, however, regulation on a global scale still appears …

Slovenia’s Ministry of Finance is reportedly seeking public consultation on a draft bill related to taxing cryptocurrency investments, according to local reports. The ministry’s intent to gauge investor sentiment comes almost a month after the Financial Administration of the Republic of Slovenia proposed a 10% tax on cryptocurrency activities. If signed into law under Slovenia’s Income Tax Act, the proposed bill will impose a 10% tax rate on every fiat-crypto conversion and payments made with cryptocurrencies. However, the threshold for tax liability will be set to15,000 euros ( $17,387) for the calendar year. Investors within the limit will be exempted …

Tether Operations Limited, the firm operating the Tether (USDT)-centric platform tether.to, announced today that it will use Notabene, an end-to-end solution for cryptocurrency Travel Rule compliance. Tether will begin testing Notabene's cross-border transaction monitoring system for virtual asset service providers (VASPs) to combat financial crimes such as money laundering. Notabene is a new technology for monitoring cryptocurrency transactions in real-time, making the blockchain more transparent and allowing regulators to keep better track of cash flow. The Know Your Customer infrastructure stack at the firm is built to span jurisdictions with little or no regulation of financial services. In order to …

The Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) has established a regulatory framework for investment tokens as part of its efforts to stimulate the digital financial and technological environment while also meeting market players' demands and requirements. The DFSA is an independent regulatory body in Dubai that is in charge of monitoring and regulating financial services companies wanting to operate there. It also licenses and regulates their products and services. According to a report by Emirates news agency WAM, the DFSA's regulatory framework defines investment tokens as either "a Security Token or Derivative Token." The report notes that the creation of a …