This week, a United States federal district judge ruled that an allegedly fraudulent crypto token meets the definition of a commodity. That brought the case under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) purview, which has long argued that virtual currencies constitute commodities. Here what it means — and how the watchdog has been supporting its stance on cryptocurrencies’ legal status. Are cryptocurrencies commodities or securities? Well, they can be both The regulatory approach to cryptocurrencies in the U.S. is complex. While the Congress holds supreme power over federal regulatory agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the CFTC, …

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed charges against international securities dealer 1pool Ltd., which was offering Bitcoin-funded security-based swaps, according to an SEC announcement published September 27. Per the SEC, the case involves the Marshall Islands-based corporation 1pool Ltd., which provides cryptocurrency-related services and stands behind 1broker.com, and its Austria-based CEO Patrick Brunner. The complaint alleges that the parties violated federal securities laws in connection with security-based swaps funded with Bitcoin (BTC). The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and seeks permanent injunctions, disgorgement plus interest, and penalties. The SEC …

New Zealand police have warned the public about online scams after an investor lost $320,000 NZD ($213,000 USD) to crypto fraudsters, the Canterbury police confirmed Wednesday, September 26. The unnamed investor, who made multiple investments in an online cryptocurrency scheme which turned out to be fraudulent, was attracted by its “extremely good returns,” a police report from the town of Canterbury explains. According to the report, which does not mention the kind of operation involved, those returns in the “investments in cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin [...] soon began to decline.” When investments stopped due to the lack of returns, this …

The Texas Securities Commission (TSC) has issued an emergency cease and desist order against a Russian crypto firm, according to an official press release published September 18. The Texas regulator states that the company allegedly misappropriated both Coinbase and Cointelegraph materials to attract investors. The firm, operating as Coins Miner Investment Ltd., is said to have spoofed the email address of major U.S. crypto exchange and wallet service provider Coinbase in order to make its email solicitations to investors seem as if they were endorsed by the entity. The cease-and-desist order states that Coins Miner falsely claimed to be registered …

The CEO of SpaceX and Tesla Elon Musk asked Jackson Palmer, the creator of Dogecoin (DOGE), to help him combat "annoying" cryptocurrency scammers on Twitter in a tweet Monday, September 17. Mentioning Palmer in his tweet, Musk wrote: "@ummjackson if you can help get rid of the annoying scam spammers, that would be much appreciated." Palmer replied almost immediately, urging Musk to reach out to him using direct messages. The creator of Dogecoin promised to send Musk the script that could solve the problem: "If you DM me (your DMs aren’t open), I’ll send you the script - it’s short, …

Homero Joshua Garza, the CEO of the now-defunct U.S. crypto firm GAW Miners, has been sentenced to 21 months in prison for defrauding investors, local news agency Hartford Business reports Thursday, September 13. Garza received the verdict in the Hartford federal court, following his guilty plea to a wire fraud charge related to creating and selling a scamcoin dubbed PayCoin (XPY). Instead of serving the original 20 year sentence, Garza will report to prison on January 4, 2019 and be jailed until 2021, with an additional three years of supervised release, including six months in home detention. In addition to …

Authorities from two U.S. states have implored the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in India to seize the property of promoters of Bitcoin (BTC) investment firm BitConnect, the Times of India reported September 11. BitConnect, which ceased its operations in January of this year, was an open-source cryptocurrency and an investment program accused of being a Ponzi scheme. The accusations were based on the multi-level referral system and promise of astronomical returns on customers’ investments. The U.S. states of Illinois and Arizona are asking the CID to seize the property of the promoters, who are suspected of raising Rs 41,000 crore …

Star Xu, the founder of exchange services provider OKCoin and the world’s second-largest crypto exchange OKEx, has allegedly been detained in China in relation to suspected digital currency fraud, local news outlet Sina News reports September 11. According to the news outlet, Xu is currently being held in the Shanghai Weifang Xincun police station, and will be released within 24 hours if insufficient evidence is found of his participation in suspected fraud. Tech news sources ZeroHedge reports that investors in WFEE Coin — a company where Xu is a shareholder — complained to the police about the company’s allegedly fraudulent …

Belgium’s Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) has added 28 new sites to its crypto-related fraud blacklist, as it reiterates its warnings to consumers in a fresh alert posted today, September 4. The FSMA has said that despite its prior risk alerts, the agency continues to receive complaints from consumers swindled by fraudsters capitalizing on the cryptocurrency “hype.” The warning says that scammers are canny enough to lure victims in with easy-seeming profits, but that at this point, “the only thing they actually do […] is take the customers’ money and disappear. It is as simple as that.” The agency …

The Supreme Civil and Criminal Court of Greece has ruled to extradite alleged BTC-e owner Alexander Vinnik to Russia to face several cyber fraud charges, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reports Tuesday, September 4. The formal decision on extradition to Russia will be issued September 14, coming into force the same day. During the actual hearing, the Supreme Court will also consider France’s request on the alleged BTC-e owner’s extradition. According to RIA, Vinnik agreed with his extradition to Russia. “[This case] is now up to politicians and their will,” his attorney Timofey Musatov stated. The U.S., France, and …

In response to a reported increase in the illicit use of cryptocurrencies, Japan's National Police Agency (NPA) plans to introduce new software which can track cryptocurrency transaction history, Japan's national public broadcasting organization NHK reported August 30. In 2019, the National Police Agency will reportedly put special software into service to track the history of virtual currency transactions within the country. The move comes as part of an effort to fight the increased level of cryptocurrency misuse and thefts. In order to cover the expense of the new software, the NPA is looking to increase its budget by 35 million …

Alleged former owner of crypto exchange BTC-e Alexander Vinnik was indicted and subjected to a "fake" interrogation by French prosecutors on Tuesday, August 28, his attorney Timofey Musatov told Russian news outlet Izvestiya Thursday, August 30. Musatov claims that his client Vinnik was brought to a court in Greece where he is currently awaiting extradition and then informed about official charges in France. Musatov also told Izvestiya that French prosecutors attempted to hold a "fake" interrogation without informing his lawyers, which he insists was a violation of Vinnik’s rights. He further explains that under Greek law only local security forces …