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A New York court dismissed the class action lawsuit against Uniswap Labs, permanently rejecting the federal claims and dismissing the state law claims without prejudice. This ruling emphasizes the legal nature of decentralized protocols and confirms that smart contract developers should not be held liable for third-party misuse.This legal victory not only solidifies Uniswap's operational model but also sets an important precedent for other decentralized platforms facing similar legal challenges, marking a milestone in the legal progress of the DeFi industry.

A U.S. federal judge has dismissed the remaining state law claims against Uniswap Labs and its founder Hayden Adams, bringing an end to this protracted class action lawsuit.The lawsuit sought to hold the developer of this decentralized trading platform accountable for fraudulent tokens traded on its protocol. U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla of the Southern District of New York issued a ruling that definitively dismissed the plaintiffs' second amended complaint, ruling that the plaintiffs could not hold the company liable for the misconduct of unidentified third-party token issuers. Uniswap's General Counsel Brian Nistler stated that this ruling sets an important precedent for the DeFi industry, reaffirming that developers are not responsible for illegal activities conducted by third parties using open-source code.

According to market news, Judge Katherine Polk Failla of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has dismissed the class action lawsuit against Uniswap Labs and its founder Hayden Adams. This ruling ends a long-standing legal attempt to hold DEX developers accountable for "fraud tokens" traded on their platform.In her ruling, the judge stated that holding the creators of smart contract code responsible for third-party abuses of decentralized platforms is "illogical," and emphasized that merely providing a platform does not equate to substantial assistance in fraud. Since the plaintiffs failed to present valid legal claims even after multiple amendments to the complaint, the judge decided to "dismiss the case with prejudice," meaning the plaintiffs cannot sue again on the same grounds.Uniswap's General Counsel Brian Nistler stated that this ruling sets an important precedent for the DeFi industry, reaffirming that developers are not responsible for illegal activities conducted by third parties using open-source code.

A U.S. federal judge ruled to dismiss the remaining state law claims against Uniswap Labs and its founder Hayden Adams, ending a years-long class action lawsuit.The plaintiffs attempted to hold the platform liable for losses incurred from "scam tokens" traded on the Uniswap protocol. Judge Katherine Polk Failla of the Southern District of New York issued the ruling on Monday, dismissing the plaintiffs' second amended complaint "with prejudice," stating that the plaintiffs failed to present a viable legal claim. The court noted that the plaintiffs had multiple opportunities to amend their complaint but still could not demonstrate that Uniswap was responsible for the misconduct of unnamed third-party token issuers.The plaintiffs claimed to have suffered losses due to actions such as "rug pulls" and "pump-and-dump" schemes, arguing that Uniswap "aided fraud" by providing a platform for buyers and sellers to trade. However, the court clearly stated that merely providing a decentralized trading platform does not constitute "substantial assistance" to fraudulent activities. Judge Failla reiterated her previous view that holding developers of smart contract code responsible for the abusive actions of third parties on decentralized platforms is "logically difficult to sustain."The case was initially filed in 2022 and originally included federal securities law claims. The related securities claims were dismissed in 2023, and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that ruling, remanding the remaining state law claims to the district court for consideration. This ruling signifies the formal conclusion of the case and further tightens the boundaries of state law liability for DeFi platform developers.

According to a report by Businesswire, TradFi giant Northern Trust announced the launch of a Tokenized Money Market Share Class for its NIF Treasury Instruments Portfolio, marking its official entry into the digital asset market.This tokenized share class serves as a blockchain "mirror record" of institutional-grade shares, digitizing the registration of holdings through blockchain technology. In the initial phase, it will be opened to investment clients on the LiquidityDirect platform under New York Bank in the United States.The tokenized money market share class typically refers to a type of share class established for specific investor groups or trading methods within tokenized money market funds, issued and managed in token form on the blockchain.

The cryptocurrency trading platform Bakkt, a subsidiary of the New York Stock Exchange, announced the completion of the direct issuance pricing for 3,024,799 shares of Class A common stock and pre-funded warrants. Each pre-funded warrant can purchase up to 2,475,201 shares of Class A common stock, with an issuance price of $8.75 per share and a price of $8.7499 per pre-funded warrant, totaling $48.125 million to be raised. The transaction is expected to be completed around March 2, 2026, subject to customary closing conditions.

Affected by Musk's post stating "Gork returns today," the Solana ecosystem's namesake Meme coin gork experienced a brief surge early this morning. Its market cap skyrocketed from less than $1 million to $14 million, before significantly retreating to approximately $6 million. The token saw a 24-hour increase of 520%, with a trading volume of $20.9 million during the same period. As of now, the token has been online for about 301 days.It is reported that this Meme coin originated from an account on the X platform that imitates xAI Grok, named "gork" (X: gork), which currently has 349,000 followers. In May 2025, this account gained popularity when Musk changed the X nickname to "Gorklon Rust" and used a Gork-themed avatar, causing the Solana chain's namesake Meme coin gork to see its market cap rise to over $130 million. Additionally, the account on X has not posted any tweets since November 18, 2022, up to today. ChainCatcher reminds users that Meme coin trading is highly volatile, largely relying on market sentiment and conceptual hype, and has no actual value or use case, so investors should be aware of the risks.

The Financial Secretary of Hong Kong, Paul Chan, stated in his budget speech that in order to further attract family offices and funds to settle in Hong Kong, the tax system will be optimized, with digital assets, precious metals, and others listed as eligible investments for tax relief, planned to take effect from the 2025/2026 tax year.In addition, the economic cooperation and development organization (OECD) framework for cryptocurrency asset reporting and the newly revised common reporting standards will be implemented over the next two years, in line with international efforts to enhance tax transparency and combat cross-border tax evasion. It is expected that the draft amendment to the Tax Ordinance will be submitted in the first half of the year. Chan also stated that the Hong Kong government will continue to regularly issue tokenized bonds, and a digital asset platform will be established within the year to support the issuance and settlement of digital bonds, gradually expanding to other digital assets and connecting with other tokenized platforms in the region.

According to a press release from the Hong Kong government, the Financial Secretary Paul Chan stated in his budget speech that to further attract family offices and funds to settle in Hong Kong, the tax system will be optimized, with digital assets, precious metals, and others listed as eligible investments for tax relief, planned to take effect from the 2025/2026 tax year.In addition, over the next two years, the implementation of the OECD's crypto asset reporting framework and the newly revised Common Reporting Standard will be carried out, in line with international efforts to enhance tax transparency and combat cross-border tax evasion, with a draft amendment to the Tax Ordinance expected to be submitted in the first half of the year. Chan also stated that the Hong Kong government will continue to regularly issue tokenized bonds, and a digital asset platform will be established within the year to support the issuance and settlement of digital bonds, gradually expanding to other digital assets and connecting with other tokenized platforms in the region.

According to Axios, Musk's AI company xAI has reached an agreement with the Pentagon to use the Grok system in classified systems. This is the first AI model, besides Anthropic Claude, to be granted access to the military's most sensitive intelligence and weapons development workflows.

According to a report by Cointelegraph, Santiment's latest report shows that the Memecoin market is currently exhibiting "classic capitulation signals." Despite the overall volatile trend in the cryptocurrency market, the sector may be approaching a temporary bottom.Data shows that the total market capitalization of Memecoins has dropped by about 34% over the past 30 days, falling to $31.02 billion. During the same period, Dogecoin fell by 32%. Santiment points out that there is currently a rising "nostalgic" sentiment towards Memecoins on social media, with many traders generally accepting the narrative of the "end of the meme era," and this consistent pessimism is often a typical market capitulation signal.The report states that when a sector is "completely sentenced to death" by the market, it is often the point of contrarian attention, as "maximum pain often corresponds to a temporary bottom." Additionally, Santiment notes that bearish comments on crypto social media significantly outnumber bullish comments. Historical experience shows that the market usually moves in the opposite direction of public expectations. Even if prices rebound, doubts remain in the market, which may instead favor a more sustained recovery trend.Santiment emphasizes that as Bitcoin becomes more institutionalized, the traditional path of "Bitcoin hitting new highs → Ethereum catching up → altcoin season rotating comprehensively" may no longer be fully applicable. In the future, altcoin trends may become more differentiated rather than simply "a rising tide lifts all boats."

Jim Moloney, head of the SEC's Division of Corporation Finance, stated that they are working to expedite the development of regulatory rules. The division will primarily focus on reforms related to crypto assets and is preparing to submit two key proposals regarding crypto assets to the Commission: first, to provide interpretive guidance that offers a clear classification for crypto assets and describes the framework for determining when crypto assets are subject to investment contract obligations; second, to develop a reasonable regulatory structure proposal for the issuance and sale of such securities that are subject to investment contract obligations.Additionally, the division will continue to provide market clarity through statements and no-action letters. Jim Moloney also mentioned that other ongoing work by the SEC includes: implementing the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act (HFCAA); creating an option for semi-annual reports instead of quarterly reports; and alleviating regulatory burdens under Regulation S-K, including executive compensation disclosures.

According to Finance Feeds, the Financial Services Agency of Japan plans to officially reclassify Ripple's XRP as a "regulated financial product" before the second quarter of 2026, moving it out of the "crypto asset" category under the Payment Services Act and into the more stringent regulatory framework of the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act.This move aims to align the legal status of XRP with its significant institutional application scale in Japan. XRP has become one of the pillars of the country's banking and remittance infrastructure. After reclassification, XRP will gain an "investment-grade" status equivalent to traditional stocks and bonds, which is expected to attract more institutional capital and provide a regulatory precedent for other major digital assets. The new regulations will require exchanges and liquidity providers to fully disclose asset volatility, technical characteristics, and issuer relationships, and will explicitly prohibit insider trading and market manipulation to enhance investor protection.

According to Decrypt, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg urged New York state lawmakers to classify unlicensed cryptocurrency businesses as a criminal offense and called for enhanced law enforcement tools to combat crypto crime.Bragg warned that a criminal economy worth $51 billion is thriving in regulatory blind spots, allowing criminals to launder money from guns, drugs, and fraud without punishment. He specifically pointed out that unlicensed crypto ATMs, which charge fees of up to 20% to convert cash into digital assets, are one of the main issues. He argued that all crypto businesses must be subject to mandatory licensing and comply with Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations, with violators facing criminal liability. If the proposal is passed, New York will become the 19th state in the U.S. to criminalize unlicensed crypto operations.

Fitch Ratings, an international credit rating agency, released an assessment report on Monday, categorizing Bitcoin-backed securities as "speculative grade" credit ratings, warning of their "high risk" that could lead to losses for lenders and investors.The report pointed out that the extreme volatility of Bitcoin prices is a major risk factor. When the collateral coverage ratio falls below the stipulated threshold, it can quickly erode the value of the collateral and trigger margin calls and forced liquidations.Fitch cited the collapses of crypto lending platforms such as BlockFi and Celsius in 2022-2023, emphasizing the vulnerability of collateral models under market pressure. This assessment primarily targets credit instruments that directly rely on the value of collateral for repayment, excluding equity products like spot Bitcoin ETFs.

Regarding "Japan will classify Bitcoin as a financial product this year," crypto analyst Willy Woo commented, "The Japanese will be more motivated to buy Bitcoin. Classifying Bitcoin as a financial product means that the tax rate on Bitcoin gains (or transactions) will be 20%, rather than the marginal income tax rate (which is 43-55% if annual income exceeds $57,000). Metaplanet will lose its tax arbitrage advantage compared to self-custodied Bitcoin. About 110 cryptocurrencies are also included, with staking rewards taxed at the marginal tax rate."

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia has accepted a class action lawsuit in 2025, accusing the famous rapper Drake of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) in the process of promoting and using the cryptocurrency casino Stake.us. The complaint also names well-known streamer Adin Ross and an Australian citizen alleged to have assisted in the fraudulent activity as defendants.The plaintiffs claim that the defendants used the tipping feature of Stake.us for fund transfers and concealed the flow of funds related to music streaming manipulation, while the platform is accused of evading U.S. gambling regulations under the guise of a "social casino." The lawsuit seeks no less than $5 million in damages and requests a jury trial. This case is not the first time Drake and Ross have faced legal risks for promoting Stake.us.

According to The Block, a cryptocurrency class-action lawsuit accusing Mark Cuban and the Dallas Mavericks of deceiving investors by promoting the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency lending platform Voyager Digital has been dismissed.The lawsuit claims that Cuban made multiple false statements about the company before Voyager filed for bankruptcy protection (Chapter 11) in 2022. At the time of Voyager's bankruptcy filing, the value of the cryptocurrency assets on its platform was approximately $1.3 billion. Voyager's collapse was part of a broader market downturn triggered by the collapse of the Terra blockchain, which resulted in about $40 billion in market value evaporating and ultimately led to its founder Do Kwon being sentenced to 15 years in prison earlier this month.