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A US federal judge has allowed Coinbase to delist WBTC despite BiT Global’s objections. Judge Martínez-Olguín denied BiT Global’s TRO, citing lack of evidence of harm. Despite the delisting and Coinbase launching cbBTC, WBTC dominates the wrapped digital assets market with an 85% share. In a pivotal legal decision, a California federal judge has ruled in favour of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, allowing it to proceed with the planned delisting of Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC). The ruling, delivered by Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín of the US District Court for the Northern District of California, came after a contentious legal battle initiated by BiT Global, a digital asset custodian partly owned by Tron founder Justin Sun. The BiT Global lawsuit against Coinbase for WBTC delisting The dispute began in November 2024 when Coinbase announced its intention to delist WBTC, citing concerns over its association with Justin Sun. ...

A California federal judge has rejected a bid by crypto exchange Kraken to appeal his decision to let the company’s lawsuit with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proceed. In a Nov. 18 order , Judge William Orrick dismissed Kraken’s motion for an interlocutory appeal. He stated that he determined the SEC has “adequately alleged” that the cryptocurrencies traded and sold on Kraken’s platform qualified as investment contracts under the Howey test and are therefore subject to securities laws.  Kraken Argues Cryptos On Its Platform Don’t Meet The Requirements Of The Howey Test The Judge’s order comes after Kraken asked for permission to appeal the August rejection of its motion to dismiss. Kraken’s legal team argued that there was “substantial ground for difference of opinion” regarding securities laws which a higher court could answer to potentially resolve the case early.  Kraken also questioned whet...

OpenAI is filing a motion to dismiss Elon Musk’s lawsuit against the company, accusing the billionaire Tesla founder of harassment. The artificial intelligence firm says Musk is using the court system to “harass” it to boost his own competing AI company, xAI. In February 2024, Elon Musk filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging that the company had strayed from its “not-for-profit” roots. Since the company has become a “for-profit,” Musk has rescinded that lawsuit, and instead filed a new one in August. In the August suit, Musk’s legal team alleged that OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, “intentionally courted and deceived Musk, preying on Musk’s humanitarian concern about the existential dangers posed by artificial intelligence” and “assiduously manipulated Musk into co-founding their spurious non-profit venture, OpenAI, Inc.” Musk also said he planned to ban Apple products from his company headquarters after the phone maker started a partnership with OpenAI, insinuating...

Li Lin’s company, X-Spot Co. Limited, has taken legal action against Huobi Global, filing a trademark infringement lawsuit in the High Court of Hong Kong. The lawsuit alleges that Huobi Global resumed using the “Huobi” trademark without X-Spot’s permission, despite X-Spot maintaining exclusive rights to the trademark. Exclusive rights In a June 21 release, Li Wei, the younger brother of Li Lin, the founder of Huobi Global, had his account blocked by Huobi Global advisor Justin Sun. The action was taken after Sun accused Wei of dumping Huobi Token (HT), causing significant price volatility. Sun reassured HT holders that the tokens sold by Wei would be removed from circulation to stabilize the token’s value.  Huobi founder Li Lin formally sued Huobi Global in Hong Kong for using its Chinese trademark 火币 that was not allowed to continue to be used in the original acquisition contract. Huobi was acquired by Justin Sun for over $1 billion last year. ...

The U.S. Department of Justice has filed motions to disqualify all seven expert witnesses put forward by former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried for his forthcoming October trial, citing various inadequacies in their qualifications and methodologies. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) submitted filings on Aug. 29 to preclude all seven expert witnesses put forward by Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of FTX, in his forthcoming trial scheduled for October. In the legal documents, the DOJ argues that the defense’s roster of expert s is rife with inadequacies that should disqualify them from testifying. The prosecution contends that the proposed expert s are not in compliance with the requisite standards for criminal proceedings. Specifically, they maintain that the expert opinions are unreliable and could introduce bias or confusion into the deliberations of the jury. “The court should exercise its gatekeeping function to prevent the admissibility of such flawed expert...

The BAYC creators have settled with developer Thomas Lehman over his role in selling a copycat collection of BAYC NFTs. The creator of the nonfungible token (NFT) collection Bored Ape Yacht Club has settled a lawsuit with one of the developers behind a copycat collection known as RR/BAYC.  On Feb. 6, Yuga Labs settled a lawsuit that involved Thomas Lehman, the develop er of websites and a smart contract selling “misleading” BAYC NFTs from digital artist Ryder Ripps. The firm behind the blue-chip collection sued Lehman in January for his involvement and technical support for the collection of mimic monkeys. According to the suit, Lehman assisted Ripps and Jeremy Cahen to develop and promote the NFTs on social media. It claimed that this was a “deliberate effort to harm Yuga Labs at the expense of consumers by sowing confusion,” regarding the two collections. In the settlement, Yuga Labs and Lehman agreed on a permanent injunction barring Lehman from using any “confusingly similar” B...