Following rumors of new organization splitting off from the Ethereum Foundation, Lido’s founder Konstantin Lomashuk said “no actual second foundation has been created yet.”
According to DL News, the legal dispute between Mikhail Egorov, founder of decentralized exchange Curve, and three cryptocurrency venture capital giants has once again seen new developments. The California Court of Appeals upheld the ruling to dismiss the venture capital company's lawsuit, stating that California is not the appropriate jurisdiction to hear the case. This dispute began in June 2020, when venture capital firms ParaFi, Framework Ventures, and 1kx invested $3 million in the Swiss company Stake GmbH behind Curve. However, in August 2020, Egorov cancelled the investment on the grounds of missing the deadline and reportedly withheld the equity that should have been delivered. In October 2022, a venture capital firm filed a lawsuit in California accusing Egorov of fraud and misappropriation of funds, but Egorov denied these allegations. In September 2023, a San Francisco judge ruled that California had no jurisdiction and therefore dismissed the case. The venture capital firm subsequently appealed, but the California Court of Appeals upheld the original verdict. In the appeal, the venture capital firm accused Egorov of lying about the time of moving to Switzerland and claimed that he had fraudulently induced him to agree to choose Swiss court jurisdiction in the investment agreement, and then fled the United States to evade jurisdiction. However, the court held that Egorov's interaction with California was limited and indirect, and did not meet the "minimum connection" requirement for California to exercise jurisdiction over him. The judge pointed out that the efforts made by venture capital firms to establish business relationships do not constitute Egorov's intentional actions against California. Therefore, the California court has no jurisdiction over this case, and Egorov stated that the venture capital firm can continue to oppose and appeal, but the court's judgment is based on sufficient evidence.
U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Caroline Pham, the Republican commissioner who just took over the agency as President Donald Trump returned to the White House, ushered out many of the agency's top officials under predecessor Rostin Behnam, the Democrat who'd been appointed by Joe Biden.The staff changes — with each departure replaced by interim officials appointed by Pham — will have implications on cryptocurrency oversight for the U.S. derivatives regulator that's poised to play a bigger role in the field.Notably, Harry Jung, who joined the CFTC in 2023 as a senior policy advisor to Pham, will lead the agency's engagement with the crypto industry. He's been tapped for an elevated role as the CFTC's new acting chief of staff.Pham announced the departure of an extensive list of senior officials, including the agency's general council and the heads of its enforcement, public affairs, clearing and risk, market oversight and market participants divisions. Also exiting are the head of the office of international affairs and the department that oversees legislative affairs – a key area for the agency as Congress will be working on a crypto bill that could put the CFTC in a starring role."I’m pleased to announce CFTC leadership changes with the beginning of the new administration," Pham said in a statement. "I am grateful for their combined many decades of faithful service to the CFTC, and I appreciate our talented CFTC staff who will be assuming these roles on an interim basis."The new acting general counsel — the agency's top legal official — and Pham's chief of staff and public-affairs director were lifted from the ranks of staff from her commissioner office: Meghan Tente, Taylor Foy and Jung, respectively. Running the legislative office will be Nicholas Elliot, who previously advised her on policy.The stand-in enforcement director will be Briang Young, a former Department of Justice veteran who took over the CFTC's whistleblower officer last year.
Odaily Planet Daily News: Token Terminal data shows that daily transaction fees on Solana have reached a historical high of approximately $50 million per day, equivalent to an annualized amount of approximately $19.4 billion.
According to Cointelegraph, Virginia Democratic Congressman Gerald Connolly has called on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to investigate whether President Trump's cryptocurrency business conflicts with his presidential duties. Connolly stated in a letter to James Comer, the Republican chairman of the committee, on January 21 that Trump may have profited from his World Liberty Financial (WLFI) platform and Meme coin TRUMP, which could violate ethical standards and pose national security risks; Trump's WLF platform is particularly unsettling because its largest investor - Sun Yuchen, the founder of TRON - is a foreign entrepreneur, and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has accused him of securities fraud. He added that such financial "entanglements" have raised "serious national security concerns" that foreign powers may influence US policies. Connolly wrote: "If such behavior is allowed to continue unchecked, it will send a signal to the American people that the Supervisory Commission is unwilling or unable to implement the standards it claims to uphold." He also said that Trump is unlikely to comply with "any provision" of the Presidential Moral Reform Act without the intervention of the Commission. This law requires financial disclosure and conflict of interest checks.
According to Bitcoin Magazine, Kansas Senator Bowser proposed Senate Bill 34 aimed at investing public employee retirement funds in Bitcoin ETFs. According to the text of the bill, it intends to authorize the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System (KPERS) Trust Committee to invest up to 10% of the funds from the Kansas Public Employees Retirement Fund in Bitcoin ETF products.