The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, has ordered that ICO broker ICOBox must pay $16 million after the startup failed to act on previous legal action from the commission. U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer of California sided with the SEC in a default judgement, after the alleged unregistered broker failed to respond to the commission’s lawsuit against the startup from September 2019, according to a March 6, 2020 statement. ICOBox allegedly conducted an unregistered token offering, as well as unregistered broker activities. The SEC filed with California courts in January 2020 seeking such a default ruling. ICOBox allegedly …

A pending bill may still inhibit cryptocurrencies from flourishing in India, with India’s parliament yet to rule on the "Banning of Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill" from 2019, Business Insider reported on March 7. If passed, the bill will introduce unique regulatory frameworks for virtual currencies, utility tokens, and commodity-backed tokens — likely creating a complex exclusionary legislative apparatus for blockchain businesses to navigate. Supreme Court repeals Reserve Bank of India’s crypto ban On March 4, India’s crypto community rejoiced as India’s Supreme Court ruled that the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) ban was “disproportionate and unconstitutional. …

A French commerce court has classified Bitcoin (BTC) as currency during a recent trial. Local news outlet Les Echos reported on March 5 that the Commercial Court of Nanterre decided on Feb. 26 to qualify Bitcoin as a fungible interchangeable asset that is not individualizable, just like fiat money. The ruling was part of a dispute between French cryptocurrency exchange Paymium and alternative asset investment firm BitSpread. Per the report, Paymium loaned 1,000 BTC (over $9.1 million as of press time) to BitSpread in 2014. When holding the leased 1,000 BTC, BitSpread also got hold of 1,000 Bitcoin Cash (BCH) …

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is planning to file a petition against the recent landmark judgment made by the Supreme Court that nullified the controversial banking ban it imposed on companies transacting in cryptocurrencies. According to a report by The Economic Times on March 6, the RBI is worried that the court’s decision could lead to cryptocurrency trading and put the banking system at risk. Challenging the Supreme Court’s decision As Cointelegraph reported, on March 4 the Supreme Court nullified the RBI’s blanket ban on banks dealing with crypto businesses. The central bank had initially enforced the ban in …

Zachary Salter, the co-founder of Zima Digital Assets alongside 28-year-old John Caruso, has pleaded not guilty to charges of money laundering and conspiracy to commit wire fraud in his arraignment in Arizona on March 4. The criminal indictment alleges that the pair ran a purported cryptocurrency investment scheme that was used to defraud their customers of more than $9 million in a classic Ponzi scheme. Approximately $1.9 million in deposits were cycled back to early investors as supposed investment returns. The purported profits served to validate the scheme, contributing to a further wave of deposits. The remaining $7 million was …

Data scientist Geoff Golberg has sued Twitter for banning his account after he used insulting language toward a bot. Golberg, the co-founder of blockchain analytics company Elementus and an academic at the University of Colorado, was banned from Twitter on July 29, 2019, for engaging in “abusive behavior.” In the lawsuit, Golberg emphasizes that the very existence of the inauthentic account violated Twitter’s terms of service. He states he was banned for using the words “idiot” and “moron” specifically. The case was prepared by crypto legal veterans Stephen Palley and Preston Byrne of Anderson Kill. The plaintiff is seeking damages …

The Supreme Court of India has struck down the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) controversial ban on banks’ dealings with crypto-related firms. The court’s bench of Justices Rohinton Nariman, S Ravindra Bhat, and V Ramasubramanian, delivered the judgment earlier today, March 4, litigation news site Live Law reported. Landmark ruling India’s central bank, RBI, had imposed a blanket ban on banks’ dealings with crypto businesses back in April 2018, which came into effect in July of that year. Following both public and industry-led petitions, a case combining challenges against the central bank was brought before the Supreme Court by the …

Following a major technical outage, popular stock and cryptocurrency trading app Robinhood is purportedly operational again. The popular platform for trading stocks and cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) experienced a major technical outage, causing a loss of access to user accounts. On Monday, March 2, Robinhood encountered a day-long technical problem with users purportedly being unable to complete their exchange orders or even load their portfolio lists and charts. Robinhood temporarily restored service to experience outage again Subsequently, Robinhood released an official statement on the matter, providing little information on what exactly happened exactly. Robinhood support team tweeted on March 2: …

As part of a defamation case in front of the New South Wales, or NSW district court, Judge Judith Gibson allowed cryptocurrency usage as collateral. “This is a recognized form of investment," Gibson said of cryptocurrency, also acknowledging its volatility, according to a brief from the Australian Associated Press. The plaintiff vies for crypto usage As part of the defamation case, the NSW court stated the accusing party must place $20,000 AUD, or approximately $13,000 USD, in a bank account guarded by the courts. Should the accusing party lose or secede, the funds would pay for a portion of the …

Once again, Tether has ridiculed and dismissed allegations that it used its USDT stablecoin for manipulating Bitcoin’s (BTC) price. In a statement sent to Cointelegraph on Feb. 28, iFinex, the firm behind Tether, states that the claims in the market manipulation lawsuit against the firm are “reckless and false.” The statement reads: “The allegations in the complaint are without merit or legal basis, and exhibit a fundamental lack of understanding of the market structure of cryptocurrencies. Indeed, it is reckless and false to allege that USDT tokens are issued in order to manipulate markets.” Many of the accusations regarding Tether’s …

Self-proclaimed Bitcoin (BTC) creator Craig Wright claims that Bitcoin can and will be seized to accommodate court orders. On Feb. 26, Bitcoin influencer Peter McCormack published screenshots showing Wright claiming that the first seizure of Bitcoin by courts will happen this year and won’t require private keys. Bitcoin seizure through miner coordination Instead, it will supposedly happen through miner and node coordinating to comply with a court order. He concluded: “Without keys, BTC will be confiscated. Code is law, and courts can mandate patching code. Bitcoin is not encrypted. It is economic.” In the second and last screenshot, Wright asks …

On Feb. 24, a California federal judge ruled that cryptocurrency investor Michael Terpin can proceed with his lawsuit against telecom corporation AT&T over a $24 million SIM hacking incident. Terpin is arguing that an AT&T agent who was bribed by a criminal gang supplied data that allowed the hackers to steal $24 million worth of cryptocurrency in January 2018. Terpin is a prominent cryptocurrency investor who founded BitAngels in 2013. On June 11, 2017, hackers were purportedly able to gain control of the investor’s phone number through a SIM swapping attack — allowing them to impersonate Terpin and convince one …