Property ladder
UK court rules Tether is a ‘distinct form of property’
UK High Court says Tether is property in landmark fraud case.
In Loose Change: eToro rapped, fined over crypto trading.
Trump announces new crypto project.
Switzerland eyeing crypto exchange
And you're tied together with a smile.
Bitkub ruling
Chomping at the bit: The UK High Court has ruled against a fraud victim seeking damages from Thailand-based cryptocurrency exchange Bitkub, in a landmark token asset case.
Fabrizio D’Aloia brought legal action after his stolen cryptocurrency, totalling $3.3m in Tether USDT and other tokens, transferred through various exchanges and crypto mixers.
While the court acknowledged the fraud, D'Aloia failed to prove that Bitkub was “enriched” by receiving 400,000 USDT, of which 46,291 was allegedly traced from the fraudsters.
The use of crypto mixers meant the court could not be satisfied that a Bitkub wallet had received D’Aloia’s USDT.
In addition to Bitkub, the Italian engineer named other parties in the suit, including Binance, Polo Digital Assets, Gate Technology Corp, Aux Cayes Fintech and the unidentified scammers referred to as “persons unknown.”
House of cards: The case is said to be the first instance of an English court allowing service by means of distributed ledger technology. In his ruling, Judge Richard Farnhill stated that USDT tokens “attract property rights under English law.”
He further clarified that Tether is “a distinct form of property not premised on an underlying legal right” and can be “subject to tracing and can constitute trust property in the same way as other property.”
Trail mix: Despite this, legal experts noted D’Alio’s case fell short due to flawed tracing analysis. After hiring a “blockchain expert,” D’Alio couldn’t expose the workings of the crypto mixers used to hide the source of funds in order to link his tokens to a Bitkub wallet.
“As a strategy, it is always best to follow the funds and then seek to work cooperatively with exchanges who can play vital roles in assisting asset recovery,” said Matt Green, head of Blockchain and Digital Assets at law firm Lawrence Stephens.
“Hopefully, there will be more positive open judgements that show the cryptoasset recovery process is real and effective, when done right.”
Quillon Law partner Nicola McKinney, who led the defense, added that the tracing methods available to fraud victims listed in the case are “likely to be of interest to claimants and defendants in future cases.”
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Loose change
Bridle on a bull: Stock trading platform eToro will stop offering nearly all cryptoassets after reaching a settlement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
The business was charged with operating an unregistered brokerage and clearing agency related to its crypto trading platform, and has agreed to pay $1.5m to settle the charges.
Under the agreement with regulators, eToro is to “make only a limited set of cryptoassets available for trading” in the US and to cease violating applicable federal securities laws.
Coming back around again: Crypto figures have pounced on an amended complaint filed by the SEC in its case versus Binance in the District of Columbia.
The amendment introduces procedural updates and legal modifications to the original filing, but Paul Grewal, chief legal officer at Coinbase, and his counterpart at Ripple, Stuart Alderoty, spotted an admission that the agency regrets using “cryptoasset securities” in cases and agrees that 10 tokens are not securities in themselves.
Despite the apparent walkback, the amended suit goes harder on Binance than its predecessor, alleging “blatant disregard of the federal securities laws and the investor and market protections these laws provide” by the exchange.
It also bundles in new crypto tokens as securities not previously included, including Axie Infinity’s Shards, The Sandbox’s SAND, Cosmos’ ATOM, Filecoin’s FIL and Decentraland’s MANA.
Non-profit organization the Distributed Ledger Technology Science Foundation has launched the MiCA Crypto Alliance in partnership with Ripple, Aptos Foundation and Hedera. This initiative aims to help crypto service providers comply with the European Union’s Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulation.
Trump coin
These are the pivots: Former US president Donald Trump has launched a new cryptocurrency venture called World Liberty Financial. “Crypto is one of those things we have to do,” he said in an interview on X. “Whether we like it or not, I have to do it.”
Trump has sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump along for the ride, as well as two crypto entrepreneurs, Chase Herro and Zachary Folkman.
Trump's 18-year-old son Barron Trump has been given the intriguing title chief DeFi visionary.
World Liberty tokens are said to be based on US dollar stablecoins.
Despite once labeling Bitcoin “a scam,” the Republican candidate has been on a pro-crypto tear during a turbulent election campaign.
Swiss exchange?
Six blocks away: Swiss stock exchange SIX is mulling the creation of a crypto trading venue in Europe as part of a plan to take on rival digital assets firms such as Coinbase, Binance and OKX, it told the Financial Times.
The group wants to parlay its reputation and Switzerland’s advanced crypto laws to reel in large investors who are growing interested in trading digital assets.
“Crypto has become more and more a recognised asset class,” said Bjørn Sibbern, global head of exchanges at SIX Group.
He added that the company is examining creating “a platform where we can help facilitate trading, whether it’s [spot] crypto or whether it’s derivatives.”
Events calendar
Sep 25-26: European Blockchain Convention, Barcelona
Oct 9-11: Permissionless III, Salt Lake City
Oct 14-15: Ripple Swell, Miami
Oct 22-23: Blockchain Life Forum, Dubai
Dec 4-5: India Blockchain Week, Bengaluru
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