USA – CALIFORNIA Trends and Developments Contributed by: Bahram Seyedin-Noor, Jared Kopel, Joshua Korr and Monica Eno, Alto Litigation
non-fungible tokens (NFTs), raising USD29.9 million worth of ether (ETH). Without admit- ting or denying the allegations, the company agreed to disgorge USD5.12 million, prejudg- ment interest of USD483,195.90, and a civil monetary penalty of USD500,000. The com- pany also agreed to destroy all the NFTs in its possession and to take measures to eliminate any royalties that Impact Theory LLC might receive from secondary market transactions of the NFTs. California state authorities also have been active in the cryptocurrency sphere. In February 2024, the California Department of Financial Protec- tion and Innovation (DFPI) announced that it had entered into a consent order with TradeStation Crypto, Inc (“TradeStation”), to resolve the DFPI’s investigation into TradeStation’s cryptocurrency interest-earning programme. As the co-lead of a multi-state investigation, the DFPI negotiated a USD1.5 million settlement with TradeStation.
Further, in October 2023, Governor Newsom signed into law California’s Digital Finance Assets Law, which is a comprehensive effort to regulate the digital asset market. Effective as of July 2025, the law would require businesses – unless exempted – to obtain a licence and com- ply with disclosure and record-keeping require- ments in order to engage or hold themselves out as engaging in: • digital financial asset activity with or on behalf of a California resident; • issuing shares or electronic certificates repre- senting interests in precious metals; or • providing representations of value used within one or more online games, game platforms or family/ies of games for – among other things – the legal tender or bank credit outside the game.
1480 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook