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- 👜 Hermès wins landmark lawsuit over ‘MetaBirkin’ NFTs
👜 Hermès wins landmark lawsuit over ‘MetaBirkin’ NFTs
Artist ordered to pay $133K in damages
Hey Waivly Crew! 🌊 Kraken has settled charges with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and is shutting down its crypto staking program. Floki will drop NFTs to raise funds for Turkish earthquake victims.
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Kraken ends crypto staking services for US clients
Kraken will end its crypto staking program in the United States and pay $30 million in a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
In a Thursday press release, the SEC announced that Kraken — the fourth-largest crypto exchange by daily volume — failed to register the offer and sale of its “crypto asset staking-as-a-service program.”
Kraken’s staking service offered a 20% APY, with promises to “send customers staking rewards twice per week,” according to the website.
“Whether it’s through staking-as-a-service, lending, or other means, crypto intermediaries, when offering investment contracts in exchange for investors’ tokens, need to provide the proper disclosures and safeguards required by our securities laws,” said SEC Chair Gary Gensler.
“Today’s action should make clear to the marketplace that staking-as-a-service providers must register and provide full, fair, and truthful disclosure and investor protection.”
Today @SECGov charged Kraken for the unregistered offer & sale of securities thru its staking-as-a-service program.
Whether it’s through staking-as-a-service, lending, or other means, crypto intermediaries must provide the proper disclosures & safeguards required by our laws.
— Gary Gensler (@GaryGensler)
8:16 PM • Feb 9, 2023
Kraken, which neither admitted nor denied the SEC’s allegations, will continue to offer staking services for non-U.S. clients through a separate Kraken subsidiary.
This news came less than a day after Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong tweeted that he'd heard rumours the SEC may ban crypto staking for U.S. retail customers.
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NFT Special
A digital artist who sold NFTs of Birkin handbags covered in fur violated trademark rights, a Manhattan court concluded on Wednesday.
The fashion giant Hermès, which owns the luxury brand, sued Mason Rothschild in early 2022 after he released a collection of 100 NFT Birkin bags covered in faux fur.
In court, Rothschild argued that his work followed a long-standing tradition of artists depicting branded products, including Andy Warhol’s artwork of Campbell’s soup and Coca-Cola, and “comments on the animal cruelty inherent in Hermès’ manufacture of its ultra-expensive leather handbags” with its fur design.
However, Hermès argued that the collection “simply rips off Hermès’ famous Birkin trademark,” calling Rothschild “a digital speculator who is seeking to get rich quick by appropriating the brand.”
After deliberating for more than two days, the jury awarded Hermès $133,000 in damages and determined the NFTs were not protected under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, contrary to Rothschild's argument.
“What happened today was wrong,” Rothschild said in a statement. “What happened today will continue to happen if we don’t continue to fight. This is far from over.”
MemeFi project Floki will hold an NFT sale to aid the victims of the devastating earthquakes that hit Turkey and Syria earlier this week.
“It is imperative that Floki does something, no matter how little, to help victims of these earthquakes. After extensive discussions among the core team, we have decided to do an NFT sale and donate 100% of the proceeds from the sale to earthquake relief efforts in Turkey,” Floki’s team explained.
On Thursday, Floki's core team introduced a proposal to ask DAO members whether the NFTs should be launched on Ethereum or the BNB Chain. The proposal cited the following pros and cons for each chain:
Ethereum
The NFTs will have utility within our metaverse game Valhalla.
It will cost more to mint the NFTs due to the high costs of gas on the chain.
We’re likely to reach fewer people due to the high costs of gas on the chain.
BNB Chain
It’s cheaper to mint the NFTs due to the low cost of gas on the chain.
There are a lot more users on the BNB chain so there is the possibility of reaching more people.
There is a likelihood that the NFTs would not have utility within our metaverse game Valhalla.
In a recent AMA space, core Floki team member B noted the devastating impact the recent earthquake had on Turkey, which is home to a significant portion of the Floki community.
“Our Turkish Vikings are an important part of this project; they’re one of our biggest and most passionate communities and a core part of what we do here. Seeing what they are going through right now with the devastating earthquake breaks my heart and gives me so much pain,” B said.
The vote ended early Friday morning, with 75.47% of DAO members voting in favour of launching the NFTs on Ethereum.
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