Billionaire investor and the winner of thousands of Bitcoins (BTC) in the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s 2014 Silk Road auctions, Tim Draper, has set his sights on India’s nascent cryptocurrency industry. On March 22, the venture capitalist tweeted that the Supreme Court’s recent reversal of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) ban on banks providing financial services to crypto companies will drive a renaissance for the country’s cryptocurrency sector. In a March 21 interview with Inc42, Draper stated that he “met several Bitcoin and crypto startups” during a recent trip to India, adding that he “hope[s] to be able to …

The Commercial Court of Nanterre’s Feb. 26 ruling that Bitcoin (BTC) is a fungible, intangible asset sent some ripples through the French crypto community, and beyond. This may seem surprising, given that this was a lower court decision and, moreover, one that did not declare BTC a currency or fiat money — as some news stories reported — but just a fungible asset like money. The ruling is “an important milestone for further development of the crypto market, particularly in France,” Roman Matkovskyy — associate professor at the Rennes School of Business — told Cointelegraph. “The French court’s characterization of …

A California court has argued that cryptocurrencies that are not securities may be subject to federal laws targeting unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices (UDAAP) during a Feb. 26 hearing for a consolidated class action against Ripple Labs Inc. During the Feb. 26 hearing, the court asserted that transactions involving cryptocurrencies that are not deemed to be securities may be subject to UDAAP laws — paving the way for further putative action to be taken against other crypto projects that claim exemption from federal securities laws, particularly in California. However, the application of UDAAP laws is dynamic, as a …

Earlier this month, India’s Supreme Court delivered its verdict in a landmark case that promised to usher in a bullish era for cryptocurrency in the country. The Court ruled to overturn a circular from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) — issued back in April 2018 — which had banned banks’ services to all crypto-related firms. Not all banks, however, appear to be complying with the ruling. On March 12, fintech lawyer Mohammed Danish filed a representation with the central bank against the “arbitrary denial” of certain domestic banks to provide services in support of the sale or purchase of …

Online retailer Overstock is facing a lawsuit from shareholder John Murphy over former CEO Patrick Byrne’s abrupt departure from the company and off-loading of $90 million worth of shares. According to Law360 on March 11, Murphy is seeking records under Section 220 of Delaware General Corporation Law to examine potential violations of duty on the part of Overstock’s directors in connection with Byrne’s actions. The suit states: “This action seeks corporate books and records to investigate Byrne’s and the board’s role in what appears to be a scheme to cause a so-called ‘short squeeze,’ resulting in Byrne’s sudden resignation from …

The sixth-largest bank worldwide, JPMorgan Chase Bank, has settled a lawsuit over unannounced changes made to the fee structure applied to cryptocurrency purchases made using its credit cards in 2018. The details of the settlement have not been disclosed. Plaintiffs Brady Tucker, Ryan Hilton, and Stanton Smith accused Chase Bank of violating its cardholder terms of service during January 2018. The trio asserts that Chase applied the fee structure for cash advances to cryptocurrency purchases made with Chase’s credit cards for 10 days without providing any warning as to the change. Chase changes fee structure for crypto purchases without warning …

Two firms in the cryptocurrency space are at legal loggerheads regarding millions of dollars in purportedly unpaid invoices. On September 30, 2019, the London-based payments company Digital Capital sued Genesis Mining over allegedly failing to pay 2.4 million pounds (roughly $3.1 million) in unpaid invoices for its development and maintenance of its credit card software. Now, Genesis Mining Iceland has argued in a court hearing that Digital Capital failed to deliver software with capabilities beyond “peripheral functionality,” Law360 reports on March 9. The legal proceedings relate to a now-dissolved partnership between the two firms to launch a cryptocurrency debit card …

Telegram has pointed to a fresh precedent that could bolster its argument against allegations it violated United States federal securities laws. In a March 6 letter to Judge P. Kevin Castel of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Telegram brought attention to a recent case ruling it claims undermines the Security and Exchange Commission’s injunction against the firm. Telegram vs. the SEC: case recap To recall, Telegram has been embroiled in a legal battle with the SEC since the latter launched an investigation last October into Telegram’s wildly successful 2018 $1.7 billion initial coin offering …

Update March 11: Craig Wright now has until March 12 to produce sufficient documentation detailing the quantity of Bitcoins held by the ‘Tulip Trusts’ and their corresponding Bitcoin addresses. Judge Bruce Reinhart has slammed Craig Wright for producing forged documents and giving perjured testimony during the ongoing litigations between Wright and Ira Kleiman during a hearing concerning the Tulip Trust. Reinhart questioned Wright’s credibility, noting that — in the past — the self-proclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto had openly lied to the court: “Particularly given my prior finding that Dr. Wright has produced forged documents in this litigation, I decline to rely …

After experiencing a major outage last week, major stock and cryptocurrency trading app Robinhood is troubled again. Robinhood encountered another technical outage on Monday, causing its platform to halt trading services, according to a March 9 tweet by Robinhood’s support team. Robinhood partially fixes the outage after an hour of downtime The firm announced earlier on the day: “Trading is currently down on Robinhood and we’re investigating the issue. We’re focused on getting back up and running as soon as possible and we’ll update the status page with the latest.” Subsequently, Robinhood has partially restored trading, noting that they are …

The iFinex–Tether market manipulation lawsuit continues. Last week, Judge Katherine Failla of the Southern District of New York selected Roche Cyrulnik Freedman as interim lead plaintiff counsel, and four civil actions were consolidated into a single class action: Leibowitz v. iFinex Inc. In the complaints, iFinex’s subsidiary, Bitfinex, and related stablecoin Tether (USDT) are charged with manipulating the Bitcoin market in 2017 — something the firm strenuously denied. Combination of old and new This isn’t shaping up as an ordinary civil action. As Failla observed in announcing her lead counsel decision on Feb. 27 via a telephone conference call, she …

The Indian Crypto Bulls Roadshow describes itself as a not-for-profit initiative that seeks to educate Indian citizens as to the emerging blockchain and cryptocurrency sectors. The roadshow was originally scheduled to visit eight major Indian cities over 20 days — New Delhi, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Surat, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, and Bangalore. However, following India’s Supreme Court ruling that the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) ban on banks providing services to companies operating with crypto was unconstitutional, the roadshow has scheduled seven additional cities to host the event — Chennai, Visakhapatnam, Bhubaneswar, Kolkata, Patna, and Kanpur. To plan for the additional locations, …