SEC Lawsuit Against Coinbase Proceeds, AI Protocols Consider Token Merger, NFT Game Hacked for $63M
Summary:
A U.S. District Judge has denied Coinbase's request to dismiss an SEC lawsuit against it, potentially violating securities laws. Meanwhile, AI protocols SingularityNet, Fetch.ai, and Ocean Protocol are reportedly discussing a $7.5 billion token merger. In gaming news, Munchables, an NFT game on Ethereum's layer 2 blockchain, was exploited for $63 million worth of Ether, which has been attributed to one of its own developers.
A U.S. District judge has rejected Coinbase's plea to dismiss a lawsuit filed against them by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Concurrently, whispers of a potential token consolidation involving three AI protocols are circulating, while NFT gaming platform Munchables succumbs to a $63 million ETH hack.
The court rejected Coinbase's bid to dismiss the SEC lawsuit on March 27. District Judge Katherine Failla affirmed the SEC's right to pursue legal action against Coinbase, citing claims that the company functioned as an unauthorized trading platform, broker, and clearing agency. Court documents indicate that the SEC presented fair arguments that Coinbase worked as a trading platform, broker, and clearing agency under federal securities laws, and traded unregistered securities via its Staking Program.
The SEC initiated legal proceedings against Coinbase in June 2023, accusing them of violating securities laws. The watchdog claimed that Coinbase facilitated the listing of 13 token types that classify as securities. Following this verdict, a 'proposed case management plan' must be submitted by both parties by April 19.
There are ongoing discussions about a potential token merger between three notable AI protocols - SingularityNet, Fetch.ai, and Ocean Protocol. The merged token would be called AltSignals (ASI), with a fully diluted valuation of an estimated $7.5 billion. People closely associated with the talks informed Bloomberg M&A that public announcement could be made by Wednesday if the proposal gets community sanction. Despite the merger, the three platforms would continue to function independently, while boosting their cooperative efforts under the newly established Superintelligence Collective, to be run by Ben Goertzel, SingularityNet's founder and CEO. Fetch.ai's CEO, Humayun Sheikh, would serve as the chairman of the new entity.
Ethereum layer 2 blockchain game Munchables reported an exploit resulting in a loss of $63 million worth of Ether (ETH), blaming one of its own developers. Munchables acknowledged a compromise on March 26, stating that they were monitoring the alleged exploiter's activities and attempting to halt the transactions. Blockchain specialist ZachXBT identified the Wallet address of the alleged perpetrator which held 17,413 Ether worth approximately $62.45 million, as per Blastscan. The exploit was tied to Munchables' recruitment of a North Korean developer using the alias "Werewolves0943". Developer 0xQuit alleged that this was a premeditated attack involving a developer upgrading the Lock contract just before the game’s launch, allowing an attacker to assign themselves a deposited balance of 1,000,000 Ether.
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Extra reporting was done by Geraint Price, Sam Bourgi and Felix Ng.
Published At
3/27/2024 8:13:08 PM
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