Crypto Industry Fights Regulators in Court: Law Decoded, October 10-17

Grayscale and Ripple v SEC, Coin Center v Treasury: It's hot season in US courts.

Perhaps one of the most compelling signs of industry maturity is the growing number of court cases in which crypto companies are fighting perceived regulatory abuses. The past week has seen major steps in this direction.

Digital asset manager Grayscale has filed its opening brief against the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission challenging its decision rejecting Grayscale's application to convert the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) into an exchange-traded fund (ETF) Cash bitcoin. According to Grayscale, the SEC must submit its brief by November 9.

US-based crypto policy advocacy group Coin Center has followed through on plans to sue the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, for sanctioning the mixer of Tornado Cash cryptocurrency. Coin Center lawyers along with crypto investor David Hoffman, an anonymous human rights advocate known only as John Doe, and software developer Patrick O'Sullivan have filed a joint lawsuit against the OFAC, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and OFAC Director Andrea Gacki. The complaint alleged that Tornado Cash's sanction was "unprecedented and unlawful", in part due to privacy concerns regarding crypto transactions.

Meanwhile, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has revealed that he expects Ripple's long battle with the SEC to end in the first half of 2023. "Federal judges are working at their own pace ", he said, before adding: "Optimistically, we are talking about three to four months. Pessimistically, it could be longer than that. Fintech boss says Ripple w...