Crypto lawyer James Murphy – known online as “Metallawman”.– He found himself in the unusual situation of being a creditor of the bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, while at the same time, CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was sharing his articles that derailed the exchange.
“Sam Bankman-Fried started reposting my stuff, which is wild because some of my cases were saying, ‘It looks like FTX was a criminal enterprise from the start,' and he's reposting that,” Murphy explained.
Murphy in 2010 After the fall of FTX in November 2022, he became famous in crypto by digging up the Bankman-Fried bailout scenario. Murphy said there was “no bail” and the bill did not reach the $250 million requested by U.S. Attorneys.
He said Bankuman-Fried's parents' home was worth “$3 or $4 million” and that two co-signers only spent “a few hundred thousand dollars.”
“It was a press release to chase people who are outraged when they see this white collar criminal out on bail in one of the biggest frauds in our country's history.
In December 2022, he wrote a humorous article about “Bankman-Fried's Incredible Shrinking $250 Million Bond,” which received “millions of views.” From everywhere, Murphy's inbox was flooded with TV, radio and podcast views.
Murphy was trying to ease into retirement at the time, so it wasn't entirely planned.
“That's not really what I had in mind. I want to be anonymous,” he said.
Having worked as a securities attorney for 30 years representing Wall Street firms…
People ask me, “What could Sam Bankman-Fried be?”
And I say I've seen this movie before. In 2011
It was called the “MF Global Scandal.”
— MetaLawMan (@MetaLawMan) November 11,
If you've been following major crypto publications covering crypto's various legal headaches over the past year, you've probably come across Murphy's posts here and there in an article.
Murphy got into crypto in 2017 when JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon trash-talked him.
“Jamie Dimon said Bitcoin was a Ponzi scheme,” Murphy explained. But Murphy read Satoshi Nakamoto's Bitcoin white paper and concluded that Bitcoin is “clearly not a Ponzi scheme.”
After more digging, he switched gears entirely, making his Wall Street banking-focused law firm (started in 2010) exclusively crypto-focused.
He was soon working with many of the major crypto exchanges and blockchain gaming organizations, although he wanted to make it clear that he does not represent some of the more problematic names.
“As far as I can remember we haven't represented Binance or FTX, but we've represented them all. All the big players you can think of we've represented,” he says.
Showing the moral superiority that the lawyer is known for, he saw a loophole in the law firm's lease that allowed him to mine bitcoins using free electricity.
“There was a provision that the cost of electricity was included in the rent,” he said, laughing, explaining that each lot was not metered or used separately. As a result, the cost per kilowatt-hour “to mine Bitcoin was zero.
“In that case, I concluded that it would be rude not to have my Bitcoin when you're not paying anything for electricity,” Murphy says.
Therefore, the revenue is recognized only when the recipient sells their mining or processes the reward.
If passed, the bill will allow #Bitcoin mining companies to manage their revenue recognition.
This is currently only a proposal, not the law.
— MetaLawMan (@MetaLawMan) July 13,
Table of Contents
ToggleWhat made X famous?
Compared to the greats, Murphy has a modest social media following with 34,000 followers.
But for a lawyer, it is beating well above average and has more influence in the media and the crypto industry than raw numbers. He says he just stumbled into it.
“It's a bit of a coincidence. My goal in getting on Twitter wasn't to get more followers or find a way to make money.
Murphy only signed up for X in February 2022, just as he was about to start posting about the terrible mess on FTX.
Digging into the FTX crash and the XRP community's warm welcome, he sought to find a legitimate interpreter that helped boost his followers to 34,000.
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And he's officially considered a celebrity, according to the UK's Advertising Standards Authority, which sets that standard for anyone with more than 30,000 followers.
Bitcoin advocate Marc Moss's appearance on his radio show has sparked fanfare in the XRP community, seeing him refute Moss's idea that Bitcoin is the only true coin and that everything else is shitcoin.
“His position is that all other coins are bad and fraudulent and should not exist. What's wrong with me? I pushed back,” he explains, holding up XRP.
“I told him I saw all these countries using it for cross-border transactions and exchanges and things of that nature. So it looks like there's something there,” he explains.
Not long ago, Ripple was being called out left, right and center on the topic of XRP, which saw it take an interest in the Securities and Exchange Commission case.
According to the Economic Report of the President,
I just stumbled upon a key statement that may be useful for @Ripple $XRP @coinbase and others arguing with the SEC.
The report (page 239) says:
Regardless of the account used, the crypto asset, among other things,… pic.twitter.com/4rydOeplEZ
— MetaLawMan (@MetaLawMan) March 23, 2023
What kind of content do you create?
Murphy called himself MetaLawMan because he was thinking of becoming an online lawyer for everything to do with the metaverse.
“In various cases, things have emerged about people who have committed a crime and who is going to investigate that crime and prosecute that person.”
However, that took a bit of a back seat as all the FTX drama unfolded. That said, he doesn't intend to be a legitimate news-breaker.
1/ The stakes will be high for the verdict in SEC v @Ripple.
This is the reason.
If Judge Torres rules that $XRP tokens cannot be traded on secondary markets – the SEC case will undermine the entire foundation of @Coinbase and much of the @Binance case.
— MetaLawMan (@MetaLawMan) June 8,
He's retired, so while he may eventually cover important court records, don't expect him to work under those crazy five-minute deadlines like other reporters.
“I like to retire. So, when I have something to say, I just say it. But I'm not trying to build a huge following and monetize this, which is a big plus.
What kind of content do you like?
Murphy is an admirer of fellow crypto law influencers, particularly XRP attorneys John Deaton and Jeremy Hogan.
In the industry at large, Scott Melker, the “wolf of all streets” and beloved digital asset investor.
“I have a lot of respect for these big guys around here,” he explained.
When things go down in the industry, you'll often find Murphy pouring over The Wolf of All Streets podcast to break down all the legal jargon into everyday language.
What is the SEC's systematic ambiguity, and what is not, crypto security?
Answer: It violates the US Constitution and 800 years of English common law.
That's the mistake. 👇
Thank you @scottmelker for delivering this message. pic.twitter.com/N9soGvrHHl
— MetaLawMan (@MetaLawMan) June 17,
Predictions?
We usually stick to predicting prices, but when you get a lawyer at Flame Hall, you can ask them to predict how all the lawsuits in the crypto industry will turn out.
Murphy was happy to answer, but he went full lawyer to me and asked me to say a disclaimer first.
“You must include this statement. I will answer your question, but this is not legal advice, just because I am a lawyer.”
Murphy is pretty sure that the SEC will reject the lawsuit against the crypto exchange Coinbase, which slapped them back in June 2023, around the same time they went after Binance.
“Coinbase will win their case. I believe the SEC is wrong. “The tokens on the secondary market go too far to justify the fact that they are investment contracts,” he says.
On January 17, Coinbase asked the court to completely dismiss the lawsuit filed by the SEC.
Murphy said in the reading that there is no investment contract between the investors and the exchange.
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“Investors are buying a token that aligns their interests with the interests of the underlying project promoters, but they are sure not to invest in that project,” he explains.
And it argues that unlike shares, buying crypto tokens does not give you any ownership in the company. FTT tokenholders, for example, are not part of FTX.
“You don't get any ownership in the project. They will not share any profit from the project. They are not investing in the project.
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Ciaran Lyon
Ciaran Lyons is an Australian crypto journalist. He is also a freelance comedian and has been a radio and TV presenter on Triple J, SBS and The Project.
