Guillermo Jimenez

New York Attorney General Letitia James. Image: Shutterstock

New York Attorney General Sues KuCoin, Claims Ethereum Is a Security

The New York Attorney General's office today filed a lawsuit against cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin for allegedly violating securities and commodities laws in the state. In the complaint, Attorney General Letitia James makes the startling claim that not only are Terra (LUNA) and TerraUSD (UST) securities, as previously alleged by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, but also Ethereum (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. “This action is one of the fi

Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried. Image: FTX

FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried Arrested in Bahamas

The disgraced ex-CEO of FTX Sam Bankman-Fried has been arrested in the Bahamas, according to a statement from the Royal Bahamas Police Force. Bankman-Fried, also known as SBF, was arrested following “receipt of formal notification from the United States that it has filed criminal charges against SBF and is likely to request his extradition,” a statement read. The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York confirmed the request in a statement via Twitter. USA Damian Williams: Ea

CFTC Sues a DAO, Raising Legal Questions for DeFi Founders and Users

The regulatory crackdown on crypto continues. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Thursday announced settled charges against the founders of bZeroX, the company behind the bZx protocol. The CFTC fined bZx founders Tom Bean and Kyle Kistner $250,000 for allegedly “illegally offering leveraged and margined retail commodity transactions in digital assets,” as well as failing to adopt customer identification requirements known as KYC. But in a novel move, the CFTC also filed a lawsuit agains

CryptoPunks and Bored Apes are among the most popular NFT collections around. Image: CryptoPunks/Bored Apes Yacht Club

Bored Ape Yacht Club’s Yuga Labs Acquires CryptoPunks IP From Larva Labs

Yuga Labs, the company behind one of the biggest and most valuable NFT collections in the industry, the Bored Ape Yacht Club, today announced that it has bought the rights to the intellectual property of the CryptoPunks and Meebits collections from Larva Labs. And step one for Yuga Labs is to grant full commercial license to CryptoPunks and Meebits holders, according to a statement from the company: "With this acquisition Yuga Labs will own the CryptoPunks and Meebit brands and logos, and as the

SEC Rejects VanEck's Spot Market Bitcoin ETF

Following a series of delays, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission today rejected investment firm VanEck's application to launch an exchange-traded fund that directly tracks the price of Bitcoin. In its ruling, the SEC again cited concerns that the Bitcoin spot market is prone to "fraud and manipulation." To date, the Commission has only allowed Bitcoin ETFs linked to futures, contracts that bet on the future price of Bitcoin and which are regulated by the CFTC, to move forward. New York-

Two of the TSM FTX Aurory NFTs. Image: TSM/Aurory

Esports Giant TSM FTX Teams Up With Solana 'Blue Chip' NFT Game Aurory

The most valuable esports company in the U.S., TSM FTX, is teaming up with arguably the most promising NFT gaming project on the fast-rising Solana blockchain network, Aurory. TSM, now known as TSM FTX, today announced a collaboration with Solana NFT gaming startup Aurory, which will see the esports company mint its first-ever collection of NFTs. All in all, four TSM-branded Aurory NFTs will be minted—one will be auctioned for charity, and another will be given away to a fan. The remaining two T

Grape is the tool that token projects on Solana use to build DAOs. Image: Grape

Grape’s Token Sale Took Down Solana—Now It’s Raising More Money for Its Army of DAOs

There are hidden chat rooms on the internet, where cryptocurrency investors and traders build communities, share secrets, and collectively decide what to do with the money that they make. You’ll find these rooms on Discord, a messaging app originally designed for gamers that’s quickly become the home of crypto natives in search of the next big thing. And on Solana, the fast-rising blockchain competitor to Ethereum, you have to use Grape to get through the crypto-gated gates. Grape Network is a s

Gary Gensler. Image: Third Way Think Tank

SEC Chairman Hints at More Lawsuits Against Stock Token Issuers

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has spent the last four years attempting to rein in the largely unruly world of cryptocurrency trading. And that isn’t going to change under Gary Gensler’s watch, it appears. The newly appointed SEC chairman today told the virtual attendees of the American Bar Association’s mid-year program that more enforcement action—the kind that put an end to lucrative initial coin offerings (ICOs)—could be heading to cryptoland. “We’ve brought some cases involving

Elon Musk is the CEO of Tesla. Image: Shutterstock

Elon Musk Will Have ‘No Role’ in Bitcoin Mining Council

Elon Musk likes to keep himself busy—he cofounded PayPal, runs the multibillion dollar car company Tesla, and wants to "protect the future of consciousness by making life multi-planetary” through aerospace company SpaceX. But galvanizing Bitcoin miners toward a cleaner, more energy-efficient future won’t be on his to-do list—not formally, anyway. The Bitcoin Mining Council, a group of energy-conscious North American Bitcoin mining companies first revealed by Musk in a tweet in late May, debute

Investing in crypto may take some forward thinking. Image: Shutterstock

Multicoin Launches $100M Crypto Fund with Sights Set on Solana DeFi

When Kyle Samani and Tushar Jain launched Multicoin Capital’s first $10 million investment fund in late 2017, the combined value of the cryptocurrency market stood at just $170 billion. The crypto market has since ballooned to more than $2.2 trillion, and Multicoin Capital will need a good deal more than $10 million to fund its next cohort of crypto entrepreneurs—10 times more. The Austin-based investment firm today announced the launch of a $100 million venture fund, which it plans to use to ba

Ripple is a crypto payments firm. Image: Shutterstock

Ripple Cites SEC’s Stance on Bitcoin, Ethereum in Lawsuit Defense

Crypto payments firm Ripple today filed its response to the billion-dollar lawsuit it faces from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. And it’s asking the court to look to the regulator’s position on Bitcoin and Ethereum as part of its plea. The SEC filed charges against Ripple, the company behind what was once the third-most capitalized cryptocurrency in the market in XRP, late last year. The Commission alleges that the firm illegally raised $1.3 billion through the unregistered sale of

NBA star Spencer Dinwiddie. Image: Wikimedia Commons

NBA’s Spencer Dinwiddie raises lackluster $1.3 million in token sale

Blame it on COVID: NBA star Spencer Dinwiddie has pulled off the historic sale of tokenized shares in his NBA contract. But the Brooklyn Nets guard only managed to get a tenth of what he was hoping to raise. Dinwiddie’s security token offering allowed investors to buy a stake in his $34 million NBA contract by purchasing SD26 Ethereum-based tokens. The sale, which closed earlier this month, offered up a total of $13.5 million worth of shares. But, according to an SEC filing submitted today, Dinw

Stolen Bitcoin from Twitter hack is already being laundered: report

How will the Twitter hackers cash out the Bitcoin they scammed from users following Wednesday’s epic breach? Put the coins through Bitcoin mixers to obfuscate their trail, and they’ve already started, according to crypto tracing firm Elliptic. The blockchain analytics company published a report earlier today that states it has uncovered evidence that the Twitter hackers have sent a portion of the Bitcoin they stole to an address it believes to be linked to a Wasabi wallet. Wasabi is a Bitcoin mi

“Anonymous” claims to be giving $75 million in Bitcoin to privacy startups

A mysterious new website popped up yesterday that claims to represent the Unknown Fund, an anonymous organization that supposedly plans to “invest and donate” $75 million in Bitcoin to startups building privacy and anonymity tools. Based on its website, the Unknown Fund appears to be supported by individuals associated with the global hacktivist group Anonymous, which organizes via imageboards on 4chan. News of the Unknown Fund was widely reported today throughout cryptoland—with one thing cons

Multicoin Capital hires former Google product manager Tony Sheng

Austin, Texas-based cryptocurrency venture fund Multicoin Capital today announced the addition of Tony Sheng to its investment team. Sheng, a former product manager at Google and product lead at the Decentraland Foundation, joins Multicoin as a principal on the firm’s growing team. Given his experience in the tech industry, Sheng brings “a unique, user-focused perspective to the firm and the ecosystem as a whole,” Multicoin Capital Managing Partner Kyle Samani said in a company blog post. In the

Block.one settles charges with SEC over $4 billion EOS ICO

Block.one, the company behind the EOS cryptocurrency, today settled charges with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission by agreeing to pay a $24 million fine over its unregistered ICO. In 2017, Block.one raised the equivalent of $4 billion through the ICO that launched EOS. You do the math. As usual, the object of the SEC’s enforcement action has settled with the Commission without admitting or denying the charges. What’s unusual, however, is the relatively light penalty that the SEC has op

VanEck, SolidX pull the plug on Bitcoin ETF proposal

The VanEck, SolidX super team has withdrawn its proposal for a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), according to an SEC filing issued earlier today. The VanEck investment firm and blockchain startup SolidX have faced numerous denials and delays from the SEC in its attempt to publicly list shares of its Bitcoin Trust. Its latest proposal was headed for a final deadline of October 18—and, in all likelihood, yet another denial. But by pulling its proposal now, VanEck and SolidX are able to re-file t

Blockstack nets $23 million in historic SEC-qualified token sale

Who says playing by the rules doesn’t pay. Blockstack, the first crypto startup to receive the SEC’s blessing to conduct an ICO-like offering of its blockchain-based tokens to anyone in the world, today announced the results: $23 million across two sales. Specifically, the Ethereum competitor raised $15.5 million through a Regulation A+ sale of just over 74 million Stacks tokens to mom and pop retail investors in the United States, and another $7.6 million in the sale of 30 million tokens to inv

Blockchain music-streaming service Audius gears up for public beta

A new streaming service with its sights set on making the middlemen of the music biz obsolete is inching closer toward its goal of disrupting the Spotifys and SoundClouds of the world. After a year of development, and armed with $5 million in investment capital from VC firms General Catalyst, Lightspeed, and Pantera Capital, blockchain startup Audius is finally ready to show the world what it's been working on. Today, it’s unveiling its code on GitHub, free and open source, and inviting anyone i

SEC targets blockchain healthcare company over unregistered $6 million ICO

A blockchain healthcare company has settled charges with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over an allegedly unregistered ICO that raised $6.3 million, according to a statement on Monday from the SEC. The New England-based SimplyVital Health, Inc. aimed to create a “healthcare-related blockchain ecosystem,” publicly announcing plans to build its platform through the sale of its Health Cash (HLTH) token in 2017, according to the SEC’s charges. The Commission alleges that the company rai

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