Monat: September 2024

• UK Gambling Commission charges Sorare for providing unlicensed gambling services.
• The United Kingdom’s Gambling Commission has been investigating Sorare for three years.
• Sorare denies wrongdoing, asserting it is not a gambling platform under UK law.

The United Kingdom’s Gambling Commission has taken legal action against Sorare, a blockchain-based fantasy sports platform, accusing the company of operating unlicensed gambling facilities.

Sorare, headquartered in France, offers non-fungible tokens (NFTs) tied to fantasy sports teams and athlete collectibles. Following the Gambling Commission’s move, the platform is set to appear in a UK court on October 4.

The Gambling Commission opened its investigation into Sorare in October 2021 but has largely kept its findings under wraps.

As of July 2023, the Commission had not made its conclusions public, instead stating that it would engage in further dialogue with operators and third parties before reaching a final verdict.

The upcoming court battle represents the culmination of nearly three years of regulatory scrutiny.

What is Sorare?

Sorare, founded in 2018, allows users to collect and trade digital cards in the form of NFTs. These cards represent real-life athletes, and users can create fantasy teams to compete based on the players’ real-world performances.

The platform covers multiple sports, including football, basketball, and baseball. Player performance in actual games directly impacts the fantasy teams, making the platform interactive for users.

Sorare’s NFT cards can be traded or sold, sometimes reaching values in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Sorare denies any wrongdoing

In response to the charges, Sorare has firmly denied any wrongdoing.

In a public statement issued by the company’s spokesperson, Sorare has argued that it is not a gambling platform under UK law and criticized the Gambling Commission for misinterpreting its business model.

As quoted by The Guardian, the spokesperson said, “We firmly deny any claims that Sorare is a gambling product under UK laws. The Commission has misunderstood our business and wrongly determined that gambling laws apply to Sorar.”

Sorare has faced legal challenges before, including a similar case in France. In that instance, the company reached a settlement before the matter could proceed to court.

Initially, Sorare only accepted cryptocurrency payments for transactions on its platform. However, in 2023, the company expanded its payment options to include traditional fiat currencies in an effort to increase user adoption.

The outcome of the UK case could have significant implications for Sorare and the broader NFT gaming industry, which continues to blur the lines between collectibles, gaming, and gambling.

The post Sorare charged for unlicensed gambling services in the UK appeared first on CoinJournal.

• Jupiter community voting on the fate of 215M unclaimed JUP tokens is now live.
• Options include funding staking rewards, burning tokens, or multisig return.
• Decision part of J4J initiative for transparency and alignment among JUP holders.

Jupiter, a decentralized exchange aggregator on Solana, has opened a community vote to decide the fate of 215 million unclaimed JUP tokens.

These tokens, initially part of the platform’s “Jupuary” airdrop and staking rewards, were either unclaimed or from compromised wallets.

J4J initiative proposals

The vote, opened on September 27, follows a proposal put forward by the Jupiter team, led by developer Weremeow, as part of the J4J initiative which is aimed at promoting certainty, alignment, and transparency among JUP holders.

This proposal is the second in the J4J initiative. The first J4J proposal which was approved after a vote at the beginning of August, trimmed away any fat in the initial tokenomics and helped everyone in the J.U.P to understand the token breakdowns, thereby setting the stage for two more votes.

The current proposal whose voting has been opened now seeks to evolves the issue of how to use the excess tokens from last Jupuary. According to the proposal, Jupiter token holders will be voting to user use the tokens to fund the Active Staking Rewards (ASR) program for another year, or burn the tokens, or return them to a community-managed multisig wallet.

Extending the Jupiter ASR program

This option would see the tokens used to extend the ASR program, which rewards holders for participating in Jupiter’s governance. This would incentivize active participation in the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) and community voting processes.

The ASR was initially funded with 100 million JUP, 50% of which went to voters in the first three months.

If approved, the 215 million tokens would further boost rewards for the coming year.

Burning the JUP tokens

Alternatively, the community could opt to burn the tokens, reducing the circulating supply by around 13%.

This move could potentially increase the value of the remaining JUP tokens by making them scarcer.

Putting the tokens back into a multisig wallet

Lastly, returning the tokens to a multisig wallet would allow the community to decide on future uses for the unclaimed assets.

Voting is now live and can be accessed at vote.jup.ag. As part of the ongoing J4J initiative, this vote aims at involving Jupiter’s community in key governance decisions while fostering transparency and alignment among stakeholders.

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• SEC announced it settled with Mango Markets over sale of unregistered tokens in $70 million coin offering
• Mango DAO, Blockworks Foundation have agreed to pay $700,000 in civil penalties.
• The settlement will also see Mango Markets destroy the MNGO tokens and request exchanges to delist them.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission announced on Sept. 27 that it charged Mango DAO and Blockworks Foundation for the offer and sale of unregistered crypto assets.

SEC’s charges relate to the sale of MNGO, the governance token of Mango Markets. The platforms also acted as unregistered brokers for the DeFi platform.

In its complaint filed at the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, SEC alleged the three entities had violated US securities laws and the broker registration provisions.  

According to the SEC, Mango DAO and Blockworks Foundation, an entity registered in Panama, raised over $70 from sales of MNGO tokens. The sales, which started in August 2021, were offered to investors worldwide, including from the US.

The SEC says it has settled with the firms, which have agreed to injunctions and orders and will pay a total of $700,000 in civil penalties.

Destroy MNGO tokens

As part of the settlement, Mango DAO, Mango Labs and the Blockworks Foundation will also destroy the MNGO tokens. The parties will also ask trading platforms to delist MNGO as well as not solicit any crypto exchanges in relation to allowing for the trading of MNGO tokens.

These injunctions and penalties will take effect once approved by the court.

Mango Markets hack

Earlier this year, Mango Markets announced a $250,000 allocation in USDC, with the funds set aside to help navigate the growing regulatory scrutiny it faced. The platform had suffered a major exploit in October 2022, with the attacker draining over $100 million in digital assets from the platform.

The hacker, Avraham Eisenberg, was later arrested and charged over the exploit.

However, that exploit appears to have shone the regulatory spotlight on Mango Markets, leading to the latest SEC charges and settlement. Mango Markets offered to have a settlement deal with the SEC in August.

The post SEC settles with Mango Markets over MNGO token sales appeared first on CoinJournal.

• Bolivia saw a 100% increase in trading volumes of virtual assets between July and September.
• The increased volume comes after Banco Central de Bolivia lifted a long ban on Bitcoin.
• Bolivia’s central bank lifted the ban in June this year.

Bolivia has reportedly recorded a 100% surge in virtual asset trading, a few months after the country lifted its ban of Bitcoin.

In the announcement made on Sept. 26, BCB said average monthly virtual volumes across digital asset trading had doubled in the period between July and September 2024.

Virtual asset trading volume surge in last three months

According to Bolivia’s central bank, the last three months saw over 105% more in trading volume compared to the 18 months before the ban was lifted.

On average, the country saw $15.6 million in virtual asset trading monthly, and cumulatively about $48.6 million over three months.

Most of the volume was in stablecoins, which are seeing increased adoption across not just South America, but worldwide as crypto adoption rises. Recently, stablecoin issuer Circle enabled USDC transfers in Brazil and Mexico.

Edwin Rojas Ulo, acting BCB president, commented on this via a statement. He noted that the central bank is at the forefront of promoting crypto asset adoption in Bolivia. According to hime, the steps the central bank is taking are aimed at enhancing the country’s economic future.

Bolivia banned Bitcoin and cryptocurrency payments in 2014, but rescinded the decision in June. This shift in stance against crypto means the country joins others in the Latin America region that are increasingly pro-crypto.

Brazil and Argentina are among those to take a more positive approach, with measures such as introducing crypto taxation laws among major steps. Argentina also elected a pro-crypto president, with Javier Milei among proponents of Bitcoin.

The leading nation in the region however is El Salvador. On September 7, 2021, El Salvador became the first country in the world to adopt BTC as legal tender. Collaboration with industry players and other countries is also growing.

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