CFTC Sues Uniswap, Brazil X Ban and More: Law Decoded
On September 4, the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) charged decentralized exchange developer Uniswap Labs with trading illegal derivatives for retail investors.
In a notice issued by the CFTC, Uniswap agreed to settle the lawsuit by paying a $175,000 civil penalty.
In addition, Uniswap Labs has agreed to stop violating the Commodity Markets Act (CEA) and has stopped trading certain used tokens as requested by the CFTC.
Ian McGinley, director of enforcement at the CFTC, said the division will “vigorously enforce the CEA as digital asset platforms and DeFi ecosystems evolve.”
Former Ethereum consultant sues law firm for $100 million in crypto theft case defense
On September 6, Steven Nerayoff, a former Ethereum network consultant, sued law firm Covington & Burling for allegedly mishandling his defense in a 2019 US extortion lawsuit.
In Nerayoff's $100 million lawsuit, Covington attorney Alan Vinegrad said he was advised not to turn over videos of “negotiations with alleged victims.”
On September 18, 2019, Nerayoff and his partner, Michael Hladi, of blockchain consulting firm Alchemist, were arrested and charged with defrauding cryptocurrency startup Alchemist.
Nerayoff argued that the entire case could have been dropped had he not been advised in late 2019 not to provide “clear evidence to prosecutors”.
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Brazil X Ban: Are VPN Users at Risk of Accessing the Platform?
On September 2, a Brazilian Supreme Court panel upheld a ban on social media platform X that limited Brazilians' access to the service.
Celebrities including Bluesky co-founder Jack Dorsey have promoted the use of virtual private networks (VPNs) to circumvent the ban, while others have protested and warned Brazilians not to use X at all.
Brazilian judge Alexander de Moras ordered Brazilian users to block X services, prompting social media activists to argue that there should be no penalty for “anyone who uses a VPN to access X.”
On September 3, Katherine Smirnova, a legal partner and attorney at Digital & Analog Partners, told Cointelegraph that VPN access is “also prohibited” by the Morse order.
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US prosecutors have linked a former FTX expert to a Chinese bribery scandal.
U.S. prosecutors have implicated Ryan Salameh, the former CEO of FTX Digital Markets, in an investigation into the release of accounts linked to FTX and Alameda.
In a Sept. 5 filing in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, U.S. attorneys filed a memorandum opposing Salame's request to vacate his guilty plea.
Salame previously denied a motion to vacate his plea on Aug. 29, and Judge Louis Kaplan ordered both sides to appear on Sept. 12 to settle the case.
The U.S. Attorney's motion called Salameh's plea “shameless and self-serving” and described it as “factually and legally absurd.”
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