Molly White
@molly0xfff@hachyderm.io  ·  activity timestamp 6 days ago

Newsletter: Crypto bills have passed the House with “2, 3, 4 o’clock” phone calls from Trump to give “a little love” to Republican holdouts, $6.9 million in crypto lobbying, and a $141 million midterm threat. The bills feature few consumer protections and destabilizing loopholes.

https://www.citationneeded.news/issue-89/

#crypto #cryptocurrency#USpolitics#USpol
Molly White
@molly0xfff@hachyderm.io  ·  activity timestamp 6 days ago

Trump thanked the crypto industry for their support at the Genius Act signing ceremony, remarking, “half of you were under arrest for no reason”. He later added, “I got you guys out of so much trouble”.

“They’ve got plenty of cash, and it’s great that you’re on our side.”

#crypto #cryptocurrency#USpolitics#USpol

You've come a long way since the Biden administration, when they had no idea what you were all talking about, and half of you were under arrest for no reason whatsoever. [break between clips] They changed tune, you know, Biden's team. They changed tune right in the middle of the campaign. All of a sudden, they loved you guys. They dropped all charges. They did have, I got you guys out of so much trouble. [break between clips] Tyler and Cameron, Winklevoss. These are two smart, handsome guys. They got the whole package. They're of Gemini, but they have the whole package. They're of a lot of things, actually, but Gemini is just the one for today, right? They've got the look. They've got the genius. Got plenty of cash. And it's great that you're on our side. You guys are great.
You've come a long way since the Biden administration, when they had no idea what you were all talking about, and half of you were under arrest for no reason whatsoever. [break between clips] They changed tune, you know, Biden's team. They changed tune right in the middle of the campaign. All of a sudden, they loved you guys. They dropped all charges. They did have, I got you guys out of so much trouble. [break between clips] Tyler and Cameron, Winklevoss. These are two smart, handsome guys. They got the whole package. They're of Gemini, but they have the whole package. They're of a lot of things, actually, but Gemini is just the one for today, right? They've got the look. They've got the genius. Got plenty of cash. And it's great that you're on our side. You guys are great.
Molly White
@molly0xfff@hachyderm.io  ·  activity timestamp 6 days ago

All three crypto bills passed after politicking from Trump and top Republicans, millions in lobbying, a six-figure ad blitz by Coinbase, and Fairshake super PAC announcement of $141 million waiting to be deployed against anyone who stands in the way of the crypto agenda.

#crypto #cryptocurrency#USpolitics#USpol

The largest crypto super PAC, Fairshake, strategically picked Crypto Week to issue a press release announcing they have $141 million on hand for the midterms, from donors like Coinbase, Andreessen Horowitz, Ripple, and Gemini.5 This amount is already more than they spent in the entire 2024 campaign cycle, including funds distributed for spending by related crypto super PACs. The message was clear: pass our bills, or we will spend this money — and likely more to come — against you in 2026. After reaching a deal to glue the Anti-CBDC bill to the must-pass defense spending bill, the roadblock was cleared and all three crypto bills ultimately passed the House.6 The Genius Act passed 308–122; Clarity passed 294–134; and the Anti-CBDC bill passed 216–192.
The largest crypto super PAC, Fairshake, strategically picked Crypto Week to issue a press release announcing they have $141 million on hand for the midterms, from donors like Coinbase, Andreessen Horowitz, Ripple, and Gemini.5 This amount is already more than they spent in the entire 2024 campaign cycle, including funds distributed for spending by related crypto super PACs. The message was clear: pass our bills, or we will spend this money — and likely more to come — against you in 2026. After reaching a deal to glue the Anti-CBDC bill to the must-pass defense spending bill, the roadblock was cleared and all three crypto bills ultimately passed the House.6 The Genius Act passed 308–122; Clarity passed 294–134; and the Anti-CBDC bill passed 216–192.
The largest crypto super PAC, Fairshake, strategically picked Crypto Week to issue a press release announcing they have $141 million on hand for the midterms, from donors like Coinbase, Andreessen Horowitz, Ripple, and Gemini.5 This amount is already more than they spent in the entire 2024 campaign cycle, including funds distributed for spending by related crypto super PACs. The message was clear: pass our bills, or we will spend this money — and likely more to come — against you in 2026. After reaching a deal to glue the Anti-CBDC bill to the must-pass defense spending bill, the roadblock was cleared and all three crypto bills ultimately passed the House.6 The Genius Act passed 308–122; Clarity passed 294–134; and the Anti-CBDC bill passed 216–192.
In the White House The House’s Crypto Week got off to a shaky start with a logjam of record-breaking duration.a Members of the Freedom Caucus — the right-most segment of House Republicans — blocked procedural votes, demanding assurances that the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act [I88] would pass.1 Republican lawmakers, Trump himself, and the crypto lobby were out in force to push through the vote, with Trump describing 2am phone calls to give “a little love” to the Republican holdouts.2 Crypto companies and advocacy groups spent around $6.9 million on lobbying just in the past couple of months,3 much of it supporting these bills. Coinbase spent six figures on a Crypto Week ad blitz targeting members of Congress, running print ads in the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal and video ads on social media. They even tried a gimmick in which they installed chocolate bar vending machines on Capitol Hill, dispensing custom chocolate bars with labels repeating their own highly dubious poll, proclaiming that “Crypto is like a bar of chocolate. 1 in 5 Americans eat chocolate daily; 1 in 5 Americans also own crypto”.4
In the White House The House’s Crypto Week got off to a shaky start with a logjam of record-breaking duration.a Members of the Freedom Caucus — the right-most segment of House Republicans — blocked procedural votes, demanding assurances that the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act [I88] would pass.1 Republican lawmakers, Trump himself, and the crypto lobby were out in force to push through the vote, with Trump describing 2am phone calls to give “a little love” to the Republican holdouts.2 Crypto companies and advocacy groups spent around $6.9 million on lobbying just in the past couple of months,3 much of it supporting these bills. Coinbase spent six figures on a Crypto Week ad blitz targeting members of Congress, running print ads in the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal and video ads on social media. They even tried a gimmick in which they installed chocolate bar vending machines on Capitol Hill, dispensing custom chocolate bars with labels repeating their own highly dubious poll, proclaiming that “Crypto is like a bar of chocolate. 1 in 5 Americans eat chocolate daily; 1 in 5 Americans also own crypto”.4
In the White House The House’s Crypto Week got off to a shaky start with a logjam of record-breaking duration.a Members of the Freedom Caucus — the right-most segment of House Republicans — blocked procedural votes, demanding assurances that the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act [I88] would pass.1 Republican lawmakers, Trump himself, and the crypto lobby were out in force to push through the vote, with Trump describing 2am phone calls to give “a little love” to the Republican holdouts.2 Crypto companies and advocacy groups spent around $6.9 million on lobbying just in the past couple of months,3 much of it supporting these bills. Coinbase spent six figures on a Crypto Week ad blitz targeting members of Congress, running print ads in the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal and video ads on social media. They even tried a gimmick in which they installed chocolate bar vending machines on Capitol Hill, dispensing custom chocolate bars with labels repeating their own highly dubious poll, proclaiming that “Crypto is like a bar of chocolate. 1 in 5 Americans eat chocolate daily; 1 in 5 Americans also own crypto”.4
hellosilverpatriot
@hellosilverpatriot@social.vivaldi.net  ·  activity timestamp 6 days ago
@molly0xfff The cryptocurrency gold rush is a symptom of the fact that the dollar is backed by nothing but thin air and that the current financial system is nothing more than legalized usury and counterfeiting. I am a goldbug, not a crypto bro for this reason. While I will admit private, distributed, secure and completely anonymous internet hacker money is a valid problem worthy of solving, I will say that neither bitcoin nor the thousands of altcoins, some more legitimate than others solve this problem in their current form. This cryptocurrency gold rush is not sustainable and eventually will come crashing down and we will see which coins are useful and which are not. Until then I will keep stacking gold.
Molly White
@molly0xfff@hachyderm.io  ·  activity timestamp 6 days ago

The Genius Act, the one bill of the three that is now law, claims to provide oversight to stablecoin markets. It mostly serves to legitimize stablecoins — Trump’s among them — and has little in the way of consumer protections.

#crypto #cryptocurrency#USpolitics#USpol

Maxine Waters, Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, penned an op-ed for MSNBC, warning:10 The CLARITY and GENIUS bills wrap themselves in the flag of innovation, but all they really do is replicate the same mess that led to past financial crises: They call for few regulations, minimal enforcement, weak consumer protections and more industry consolidation. On top of that, these bills have a special, intentional wrinkle that makes them especially dangerous: They would legitimize and legalize the unprecedented crypto corruption by the president of the United States. Notably, the Genius Act gained support from even the most Wild West of the established stablecoin issuers, Tether, whose reserves and stability have long been a concern within and outside of crypto.11 In 2021, Tether settled with the New York Attorney General after an investigation found that Tether “for periods of time held no reserves to back tethers in circulation at the rate of one dollar for every tether, contrary to its representations”, and had repeatedly issued “self-proclaimed ‘verifications’” of reserves based on temporary transfers of funds to accounts under its control.12 Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, who once conspicuously avoided travel to the US, stood behind Trump amidst other crypto executives and watched the President sign the Genius Act into law.13
Maxine Waters, Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, penned an op-ed for MSNBC, warning:10 The CLARITY and GENIUS bills wrap themselves in the flag of innovation, but all they really do is replicate the same mess that led to past financial crises: They call for few regulations, minimal enforcement, weak consumer protections and more industry consolidation. On top of that, these bills have a special, intentional wrinkle that makes them especially dangerous: They would legitimize and legalize the unprecedented crypto corruption by the president of the United States. Notably, the Genius Act gained support from even the most Wild West of the established stablecoin issuers, Tether, whose reserves and stability have long been a concern within and outside of crypto.11 In 2021, Tether settled with the New York Attorney General after an investigation found that Tether “for periods of time held no reserves to back tethers in circulation at the rate of one dollar for every tether, contrary to its representations”, and had repeatedly issued “self-proclaimed ‘verifications’” of reserves based on temporary transfers of funds to accounts under its control.12 Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, who once conspicuously avoided travel to the US, stood behind Trump amidst other crypto executives and watched the President sign the Genius Act into law.13
Maxine Waters, Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, penned an op-ed for MSNBC, warning:10 The CLARITY and GENIUS bills wrap themselves in the flag of innovation, but all they really do is replicate the same mess that led to past financial crises: They call for few regulations, minimal enforcement, weak consumer protections and more industry consolidation. On top of that, these bills have a special, intentional wrinkle that makes them especially dangerous: They would legitimize and legalize the unprecedented crypto corruption by the president of the United States. Notably, the Genius Act gained support from even the most Wild West of the established stablecoin issuers, Tether, whose reserves and stability have long been a concern within and outside of crypto.11 In 2021, Tether settled with the New York Attorney General after an investigation found that Tether “for periods of time held no reserves to back tethers in circulation at the rate of one dollar for every tether, contrary to its representations”, and had repeatedly issued “self-proclaimed ‘verifications’” of reserves based on temporary transfers of funds to accounts under its control.12 Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, who once conspicuously avoided travel to the US, stood behind Trump amidst other crypto executives and watched the President sign the Genius Act into law.13
The Genius Act, already passed by the Senate, quickly went to President Trump’s desk. It requires stablecoin issuers to fully back their stablecoins with dollars, short-term Treasuries, and other permissible liquid, low-risk assets, and to issue regular statementsb describing their reserve composition. The bill also lays out requirements for redemption policies, subjects issuers to the Bank Secrecy Act and its anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance requirements, and defines the regulators responsible for overseeing stablecoin issuers. Critics of the bill have identified numerous shortcomings. In a June New York Times op-ed titled “The Genius Act Will Bring Economic Chaos”, economics and political science professor Barry Eichengreen compared the bill to the Free Banking Era of the 1800s, where reserve requirements didn’t prevent the proliferation of wildcat banks. “The problems that bedeviled 19th-century dollars are likely to be equally debilitating to the stablecoin ecosystem,” writes Eichengreen, concerned that accounting firms and regulators will fail to oversee the upcoming explosion of stablecoins, resulting in collapse and significant economic contagion. Consumer Reports criticized the bill for its lack of consumer protections, noting its limited auditing requirements, lack of redress for losses, and lack of explicit protections or oversight from consumer protection agencies.
The Genius Act, already passed by the Senate, quickly went to President Trump’s desk. It requires stablecoin issuers to fully back their stablecoins with dollars, short-term Treasuries, and other permissible liquid, low-risk assets, and to issue regular statementsb describing their reserve composition. The bill also lays out requirements for redemption policies, subjects issuers to the Bank Secrecy Act and its anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance requirements, and defines the regulators responsible for overseeing stablecoin issuers. Critics of the bill have identified numerous shortcomings. In a June New York Times op-ed titled “The Genius Act Will Bring Economic Chaos”, economics and political science professor Barry Eichengreen compared the bill to the Free Banking Era of the 1800s, where reserve requirements didn’t prevent the proliferation of wildcat banks. “The problems that bedeviled 19th-century dollars are likely to be equally debilitating to the stablecoin ecosystem,” writes Eichengreen, concerned that accounting firms and regulators will fail to oversee the upcoming explosion of stablecoins, resulting in collapse and significant economic contagion. Consumer Reports criticized the bill for its lack of consumer protections, noting its limited auditing requirements, lack of redress for losses, and lack of explicit protections or oversight from consumer protection agencies.
The Genius Act, already passed by the Senate, quickly went to President Trump’s desk. It requires stablecoin issuers to fully back their stablecoins with dollars, short-term Treasuries, and other permissible liquid, low-risk assets, and to issue regular statementsb describing their reserve composition. The bill also lays out requirements for redemption policies, subjects issuers to the Bank Secrecy Act and its anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance requirements, and defines the regulators responsible for overseeing stablecoin issuers. Critics of the bill have identified numerous shortcomings. In a June New York Times op-ed titled “The Genius Act Will Bring Economic Chaos”, economics and political science professor Barry Eichengreen compared the bill to the Free Banking Era of the 1800s, where reserve requirements didn’t prevent the proliferation of wildcat banks. “The problems that bedeviled 19th-century dollars are likely to be equally debilitating to the stablecoin ecosystem,” writes Eichengreen, concerned that accounting firms and regulators will fail to oversee the upcoming explosion of stablecoins, resulting in collapse and significant economic contagion. Consumer Reports criticized the bill for its lack of consumer protections, noting its limited auditing requirements, lack of redress for losses, and lack of explicit protections or oversight from consumer protection agencies.
hellosilverpatriot
@hellosilverpatriot@social.vivaldi.net  ·  activity timestamp 6 days ago
@molly0xfff Stablecoins could be a useful alternative to debit cards, but what the genius act should be doing is making stable-coin companies legally liable to hold 1 dollar per 1 stable-coin issued in escrow and that the company backing the stable-coin is legally liable that the convertibility of said stable-coin into dollars is not suspended. Stable-coins theoretically could solve the problem of "How do I securely send small amounts of money over the internet where debit cards would be inappropriate?", but until the regulations protect the convertibility of stable-coins into the banknotes backing them, then I see no reason why I would use them. Likewise, I do think that so-called "algorithmic stable-coins" that use complex algorithms should be banned because an algorithm can fail, while a real dollar inside a escrow with a legal obligation to pay to the bearer of said stable-coin is far more secure.
Molly White
@molly0xfff@hachyderm.io  ·  activity timestamp 6 days ago

Right around the time Trump signed the crypto bill, his 52%-owned TMTG company announced it had acquired $2 billion in bitcoin. This makes it the sixth largest BTC treasury company, alongside companies connected to Trump’s sons or Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

Trump business interests As always, Trump’s enthusiasm for crypto in the White House is easily explained by his personal investments. His Trump Media & Technology Group, the business behind Truth Social, has just hopped on the trend to become a bitcoin treasury company [I84, 86], acquiring $2 billion of bitcoin as the asset hits all-time highs.15 They got the money from an equity raise and convertible bonds sale earlier this year, raising $2.5 billion in total [I85]. With this, the 52% Trump-owned company has become the sixth largest bitcoin treasury company. He has close company in the list:16 Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s Cantor Fitzgerald,d backs Twenty One Capital, the company in third place. Cantor Fitzgerald also backs Bitcoin Standard Treasury, in fourth place. Cantor helping to bring both companies public via SPAC maneuvering, with the Twenty One Capital merger announced in April [I82] and the latter announced just last week.1718 Metaplanet, in seventh place, boasts Eric Trump as a member of its strategic advisory board.19 Hut 8, which recently signed a sweetheart deal with the Trump sons’ American Bitcoin [I81], is in eleventh place. American Bitcoin is also on the list, much further down.
Trump business interests As always, Trump’s enthusiasm for crypto in the White House is easily explained by his personal investments. His Trump Media & Technology Group, the business behind Truth Social, has just hopped on the trend to become a bitcoin treasury company [I84, 86], acquiring $2 billion of bitcoin as the asset hits all-time highs.15 They got the money from an equity raise and convertible bonds sale earlier this year, raising $2.5 billion in total [I85]. With this, the 52% Trump-owned company has become the sixth largest bitcoin treasury company. He has close company in the list:16 Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s Cantor Fitzgerald,d backs Twenty One Capital, the company in third place. Cantor Fitzgerald also backs Bitcoin Standard Treasury, in fourth place. Cantor helping to bring both companies public via SPAC maneuvering, with the Twenty One Capital merger announced in April [I82] and the latter announced just last week.1718 Metaplanet, in seventh place, boasts Eric Trump as a member of its strategic advisory board.19 Hut 8, which recently signed a sweetheart deal with the Trump sons’ American Bitcoin [I81], is in eleventh place. American Bitcoin is also on the list, much further down.
Trump business interests As always, Trump’s enthusiasm for crypto in the White House is easily explained by his personal investments. His Trump Media & Technology Group, the business behind Truth Social, has just hopped on the trend to become a bitcoin treasury company [I84, 86], acquiring $2 billion of bitcoin as the asset hits all-time highs.15 They got the money from an equity raise and convertible bonds sale earlier this year, raising $2.5 billion in total [I85]. With this, the 52% Trump-owned company has become the sixth largest bitcoin treasury company. He has close company in the list:16 Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s Cantor Fitzgerald,d backs Twenty One Capital, the company in third place. Cantor Fitzgerald also backs Bitcoin Standard Treasury, in fourth place. Cantor helping to bring both companies public via SPAC maneuvering, with the Twenty One Capital merger announced in April [I82] and the latter announced just last week.1718 Metaplanet, in seventh place, boasts Eric Trump as a member of its strategic advisory board.19 Hut 8, which recently signed a sweetheart deal with the Trump sons’ American Bitcoin [I81], is in eleventh place. American Bitcoin is also on the list, much further down.
Molly White
@molly0xfff@hachyderm.io  ·  activity timestamp 6 days ago

The DOJ and CFTC have shut down their investigations into whether crypto-denominated betting platform Polymarket has been allowing US bettors, even though it’s common knowledge that Americans are widely using the platform despite claimed restrictions.

#crypto #cryptocurrency#USpolitics#USpol

The Department of Justice and the CFTC have both shut down their investigations into Polymarket, a cryptocurrency-based betting platform that’s surged in popularity in the last year or so.21 Last year, investigators began looking into whether American traders were still placing bets on the platform even after Polymarket agreed to prohibit US bettors as part of a January 2022 CFTC settlement [I70, 73]. I could have told you they are, given that calling it an “open secret” in the crypto world would be dramatically overstating its status as a secret at all, but I guess that doesn’t matter now that crime is legal. This is all great news for the Peter Thiel-backed company, which has just announced its $112 million acquisition of a tiny derivatives exchange called QCX. While that may seem like a lot to pay for a relatively unknown company, Polymarket is likely just after QCX’s July 9 designation by the CFTC as a Designated Contract Market — a process that can take years, and is necessary for a company like Polymarket to operate in the US. Rather than wait, they’ve just bought one.22e
The Department of Justice and the CFTC have both shut down their investigations into Polymarket, a cryptocurrency-based betting platform that’s surged in popularity in the last year or so.21 Last year, investigators began looking into whether American traders were still placing bets on the platform even after Polymarket agreed to prohibit US bettors as part of a January 2022 CFTC settlement [I70, 73]. I could have told you they are, given that calling it an “open secret” in the crypto world would be dramatically overstating its status as a secret at all, but I guess that doesn’t matter now that crime is legal. This is all great news for the Peter Thiel-backed company, which has just announced its $112 million acquisition of a tiny derivatives exchange called QCX. While that may seem like a lot to pay for a relatively unknown company, Polymarket is likely just after QCX’s July 9 designation by the CFTC as a Designated Contract Market — a process that can take years, and is necessary for a company like Polymarket to operate in the US. Rather than wait, they’ve just bought one.22e
The Department of Justice and the CFTC have both shut down their investigations into Polymarket, a cryptocurrency-based betting platform that’s surged in popularity in the last year or so.21 Last year, investigators began looking into whether American traders were still placing bets on the platform even after Polymarket agreed to prohibit US bettors as part of a January 2022 CFTC settlement [I70, 73]. I could have told you they are, given that calling it an “open secret” in the crypto world would be dramatically overstating its status as a secret at all, but I guess that doesn’t matter now that crime is legal. This is all great news for the Peter Thiel-backed company, which has just announced its $112 million acquisition of a tiny derivatives exchange called QCX. While that may seem like a lot to pay for a relatively unknown company, Polymarket is likely just after QCX’s July 9 designation by the CFTC as a Designated Contract Market — a process that can take years, and is necessary for a company like Polymarket to operate in the US. Rather than wait, they’ve just bought one.22e
hellosilverpatriot
@hellosilverpatriot@social.vivaldi.net  ·  activity timestamp 6 days ago
@molly0xfff In my view allowing people to bet on the outcomes of world events is a good way to manage risk because if you are right you double your money and if you are wrong you lose your money. The so called experts bear no price for being wrong, and the worst way to make decisions is to put people in change who bear not cost of they are wrong. In my view, state lotteries should be replaced with world event betting limited to $1,500 dollar per position and no more than $12,500 staked at a time. Take for instance predictIT, which is an election betting online casino that predicts elections better than polls because betters are putting their own money on the line. Allowing betting on the outcome of world events at the state level would manage risk far better than the current risk management system.
Molly White
@molly0xfff@hachyderm.io  ·  activity timestamp 6 days ago

Also, the Ninth Circuit has overturned part of the October 2023 decision in Bored Apes creator Yuga Labs’ case against Ryder Ripps and his knock-off Bored Apes project — a decision that ultimately sought $9 million from the defendants.

#crypto #cryptocurrency

A portion of the October 2023 decision in Bored Apes creator Yuga Labs’ case against Ryder Ripps and his knock-off Bored Apes project has been reversed by the Ninth Circuit and remanded to the lower court for reconsideration. While the Ninth Circuit affirmed the lower court’s decision to summarily reject Ripps’ counterclaims, it reversed the decision to grant summary judgment in favor of Yuga Labs on trademark-infringement and cybersquatting claims. “Yuga did not prove as a matter of law that defendants’ actions were likely to cause consumer confusion,” said the appeals court, and on the cybersquatting claim, “did not establish as a matter of law that defendants’ domains were ‘confusingly similar’ to Yuga’s protected marks.”20 The 2023 decision resulted in a somewhat unusual outcome, where Ripps and his co-defendant were ordered to pay $1.4 million in disgorgement, around $200,000 in damages, and a whopping $7.3 million in attorney’s fees and costs after the court found the defendants had been “obstructive and evasive” and made “disgraceful and slanderous statements about Yuga, its founders, and its counsel” throughout the case.
A portion of the October 2023 decision in Bored Apes creator Yuga Labs’ case against Ryder Ripps and his knock-off Bored Apes project has been reversed by the Ninth Circuit and remanded to the lower court for reconsideration. While the Ninth Circuit affirmed the lower court’s decision to summarily reject Ripps’ counterclaims, it reversed the decision to grant summary judgment in favor of Yuga Labs on trademark-infringement and cybersquatting claims. “Yuga did not prove as a matter of law that defendants’ actions were likely to cause consumer confusion,” said the appeals court, and on the cybersquatting claim, “did not establish as a matter of law that defendants’ domains were ‘confusingly similar’ to Yuga’s protected marks.”20 The 2023 decision resulted in a somewhat unusual outcome, where Ripps and his co-defendant were ordered to pay $1.4 million in disgorgement, around $200,000 in damages, and a whopping $7.3 million in attorney’s fees and costs after the court found the defendants had been “obstructive and evasive” and made “disgraceful and slanderous statements about Yuga, its founders, and its counsel” throughout the case.
A portion of the October 2023 decision in Bored Apes creator Yuga Labs’ case against Ryder Ripps and his knock-off Bored Apes project has been reversed by the Ninth Circuit and remanded to the lower court for reconsideration. While the Ninth Circuit affirmed the lower court’s decision to summarily reject Ripps’ counterclaims, it reversed the decision to grant summary judgment in favor of Yuga Labs on trademark-infringement and cybersquatting claims. “Yuga did not prove as a matter of law that defendants’ actions were likely to cause consumer confusion,” said the appeals court, and on the cybersquatting claim, “did not establish as a matter of law that defendants’ domains were ‘confusingly similar’ to Yuga’s protected marks.”20 The 2023 decision resulted in a somewhat unusual outcome, where Ripps and his co-defendant were ordered to pay $1.4 million in disgorgement, around $200,000 in damages, and a whopping $7.3 million in attorney’s fees and costs after the court found the defendants had been “obstructive and evasive” and made “disgraceful and slanderous statements about Yuga, its founders, and its counsel” throughout the case.
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