Cryptocurrency
Coinbase Files Appeal Over ‘Investment Contracts’ in SEC Battle

On April 12, Coinbase’s legal counsel filed a brief asking the court’s permission to seek an interlocutory appeal in its case.
The controlling question was whether an “investment contract” requires something contractual. Coinbase believes it does, whereas the SEC disagrees.
An interlocutory appeal occurs when a ruling by a trial court is appealed while other aspects of the case are still proceeding.
Coinbase Fights Back
Coinbase chief legal officer Paul Grewal said that the SEC’s action against the company and other crypto firms “goes way beyond the legal authority granted by Congress and puts an unjust cloud over US digital asset innovation.”
The SEC sued Coinbase in June 2023, alleging that its provision of crypto asset trading constituted operating as an unregistered securities exchange and broker-dealer.
Today @Coinbase filed a brief asking the Court’s permission to seek an interlocutory appeal in our @SECGov case on this controlling question: whether an “investment contract” requires something contractual – we think it does, the SEC disagrees. 1/5 https://t.co/M5HgMQxCLF
— paulgrewal.eth (@iampaulgrewal) April 13, 2024
Coinbase moved to dismiss the alleged violations, arguing that the digital asset transactions at issue did not involve “investment contracts” under the Howey test because the SEC did not allege any post-sale obligations or contractual undertakings by the issuers.
Coinbase is now appealing, questioning whether digital asset transactions without post-sale obligations can be considered “investment contracts” and thus securities subject to SEC regulation.
Grewal added that Coinbase is not alone in its line of thinking since “The SEC itself has made the identical arguments.”
“In the Ripple case, they said specifically there is ‘controlling question[] of law to which there are substantial grounds for difference of opinion’ and noted ‘industry-wide significance’ of the question presented.”
In April, the court ruled in favor of Coinbase in a partial victory, confirming that secondary sales of crypto assets on the exchange do not violate the Securities Exchange Act.
War on Crypto Continues
The SEC’s war on crypto has not abated with the regulator issuing an intent to take legal action against the decentralized exchange Uniswap on April 10.
“Uniswap is a poster child for crypto decentralization – instead of celebrating Hayden Adams as a generational entrepreneur, they’re taking him to court,” said Ryan Sean Adams from Bankless, who added:
“A war on crypto is a war on the internet.”
In March, the SEC targeted the Ethereum Foundation with a subpoena in a probe to determine whether ETH is a security.
According to SEC chair Gary Gensler, Ethereum’s switch to proof-of-stake consensus could bring it under jurisdiction as an “investment contract.” However, he has yet to confirm one way or the other when questioned.
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Cryptocurrency
Imrat Group Scales Up International Presence: Active Expansion in Key Markets

[PRESS RELEASE – Canada, Toronto, May 22nd, 2025]
The international hedge fund Imrat Group continues its dynamic global expansion. Today, the company operates in over 50 countries across Asia, Europe, the CIS, the Middle East, and Africa, where it is opening new offices, building local teams, and launching partnership programs.
“Scaling globally is a natural step in our company’s growth. We are establishing local networks in regions where we see strong potential for digital finance, innovation, and venture growth. Local teams help us better understand market specifics and adapt our products more quickly to meet actual demand,” said Ben Schultz, Managing Partner at IG Security.
This approach allows Imrat Group to combine global strategic management with local flexibility, effectively promoting investment solutions, digital products, and partnership models in different parts of the world.
International expansion also facilitates knowledge sharing between regions, accelerates the development of technological sectors (such as Web3, blockchain, green energy, and fintech), and creates a solid foundation for long-term growth.
Why Imrat Group is Chosen Worldwide
Technological Leadership
Imrat Group is not just an investment structure, but a comprehensive technological ecosystem. The company actively implements innovations in Web3, blockchain, digital assets, and green energy, giving partners access to cutting-edge solutions that are already shaping tomorrow’s economy.
Global Reliability and Regulatory Transparency
The company is registered and operates in Canada, Hong Kong, and the United Kingdom, ensuring compliance with international standards of compliance, financial transparency, and investor protection. This fosters a high level of trust from both private and institutional partners.
Flexible Partnership Models
Imrat Group builds mutually beneficial collaborations — from partner programs with training and mentoring to co-launching products and tailored local solutions. In each region, the company operates with sensitivity to cultural, legal, and economic contexts, offering customized interaction models.
Comprehensive Investment Solutions
Imrat Group offers a wide range of investment strategies — from Pre-IPO and ICO to sustainable portfolios in healthcare and energy — and provides access to high-growth potential products supported by a robust infrastructure for their implementation and scaling.
Local Presence with a Global Approach
The hedge fund establishes local teams and offices in regions with strong demand for digital finance and investment tools. This enables the company not only to export ready-made solutions, but to co-create them with local market players — from Asia to Europe, from the Middle East to Africa.
“We are building a sustainable global ecosystem where each region is not merely a consumer of solutions, but an active contributor to their creation. This is our approach to a fair, scalable, and technologically mature future,” emphasized Ben Schultz.
About Imrat Group
Imrat Group is an international investment hedge fund founded in 2021. Its core focus areas include digital assets, venture capital, healthcare, green energy, and blockchain. The company is registered in Canada, Hong Kong, and the United Kingdom, and is actively expanding its footprint in key markets across Asia, Europe, the CIS, and Africa. It provides access to high-tech investment products, supports startups, and implements next-generation digital economy models.
Website: https://imratgroup.io/en
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Cryptocurrency
Coinbase Hacker Launders Millions, Mocks Investigators with Meme

The hacker behind the massive Coinbase data breach is not only laundering tens of millions in stolen crypto but has also resorted to public mockery of blockchain sleuths attempting to track their activity.
On-chain evidence shows that the attacker recently converted 8,697 ETH into 22 million DAI, a dollar-pegged stablecoin. Around the same time, a separate address – believed to be part of the same operation and which had received 9,081 ETH via THORChain – was used to convert those funds into another $23 million in DAI.
The transactions, flagged by PeckShield, indicate an effort to move the illicit funds into stable assets, as part of a broader money laundering strategy.
On-Chain Troll
What makes this case especially brazen is the attacker’s decision to taunt ZachXBT, a well-known crypto sleuth, using Ethereum’s transaction message field to deliver an insult and a meme video link. The message, simply stating “L bozo,” was followed by a clip of NBA legend James Worthy smoking a cigar.
ZachXBT, who posted about the taunt on his Telegram channel, confirmed that blockchain evidence links the sender of this message to the same entity responsible for the breach that compromised tens of thousands of Coinbase users.
These latest transactions and taunts arrive in the wake of Coinbase’s admission that the breach affected at least 69,400 users and stemmed from a campaign that began in December 2024 but was only discovered in May 2025. According to disclosures filed with the Maine Attorney General’s office, the attacker bribed Coinbase customer support personnel to gain internal access to user data.
The scope of the breach is severe and includes compromised information such as users’ full identities, contact information, account balances, and transaction histories. Coinbase has said it rejected a $20 million ransom demand from the hacker in exchange for deleting the stolen data.
Unauthorized Biometric Data Collection
Coinbase is also facing a class-action lawsuit from Illinois residents who claim the crypto exchange unlawfully collected and shared their biometric data during identity verification. Filed on May 13, the suit accuses the crypto exchange of violating Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) by capturing facial geometry from selfies and ID photos without obtaining user consent or providing proper disclosure.
The biometric data was allegedly analyzed by third-party vendors such as Jumio, Onfido, Au10tix, and Solaris. Plaintiffs also claim Coinbase refused to pay arbitration fees for over 10,000 individual cases, which led to their dismissal.
The lawsuit includes three counts of BIPA violations and one count of consumer fraud under Illinois law. Plaintiffs are seeking $5,000 per intentional violation and $1,000 per negligent one, as well as a court order to halt the practices and cover legal costs
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Cryptocurrency
Mantle and Republic Technologies Forge Strategic Partnership to Pioneer Institutional mETH Integration

[PRESS RELEASE – Singapore, Singapore, May 22nd, 2025]
mETH becomes the first liquid staking token to be held on the balance sheet of a publicly listed company.
Mantle, the largest sustainable hub for on-chain finance with over $3 billion in Total Value Locked (TVL), today announced a strategic partnership with Republic Technologies, the Ethereum (“ETH”) treasury of publicly listed Canadian company Beyond Medical Technologies Inc. (CSE: DOCT) (IBKR: DOCT) (FSE: 7FM). This partnership marks a major milestone in institutional cryptocurrency adoption, positioning Mantle’s mETH as the first liquid staking token to be held on the balance sheet of a publicly listed company.
Through the partnership, Republic Technologies plans to delegate a significant portion of its ETH holdings to Mantle’s mETH Protocol and will hold mETH as a yield-bearing, liquid staking token on its balance sheet. The collaboration underscores a structural shift in institutional digital asset strategy and growing investor conviction in Ethereum-native yield infrastructure, reflecting Republic Technologies’ deepening alignment with the Mantle ecosystem.
Republic Technologies: The First Publicly Listed Ethereum Treasury
Republic Technologies is establishing a new institutional paradigm by building a treasury strategy around Ethereum, seen as the foundational layer for smart contracts, tokenization, and decentralized financial settlement. In contrast to Bitcoin-focused strategies employed by firms like Strategy and Metaplanet, whose reserves are largely Bitcoin-based, Republic Technologies’ approach is anchored in Ethereum’s role as the infrastructure layer powering both blockchain innovation and real-world enterprise integration.
By accumulating ETH as a core balance sheet asset, Republic Technologies advances the growth of its underlying healthcare technology businesses while offering institutional-grade exposure to digital assets for all shareholders. This strategy attracts growing interest from traditional markets and accelerates institutional participation in the emerging technology sector.
“We hold strong conviction that Ethereum is the institutional chain, with ETH serving as the digital fuel powering global financial systems,” said Daniel Liu, CEO of Republic Technologies. “Our initial entry through Mantle’s Scout Program helped us gain early exposure to the broader Mantle ecosystem, where our alignment with mETH Protocol came as a natural next step. More than 50 established incumbents—including BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, PayPal, and Visa—have already built services on Ethereum. Wall Street has made its decision. Our role now is to extend the benefits of this macro tailwind to a broader base of institutional and retail participants worldwide.”
Its leadership team brings decades of experience from top-tier financial institutions, including Apollo Global Management, Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, and Canaccord Genuity. Republic Technologies operates under the publicly listed company Beyond Medical Technologies Inc., a technology firm integrating blockchain infrastructure to drive operational efficiency and improve patient outcomes across the medical ecosystem. In March 2025, Republic Technologies entered into a licensing agreement and launched its medical attestation platform, leveraging Ethereum-based distributed systems to power healthcare data integrity and regulatory compliance. The Ethereum treasury was established to support and scale this vision, marking a first-of-its-kind integration.
Institutional Alignment with Mantle’s Yield Infrastructure
Mantle’s mETH Protocol has quickly emerged as one of the leading platforms in Ethereum liquid staking and restaking. Within just 66 days of launch, it surpassed $1 billion in TVL —the fastest growth in its category—and has since peaked at over $2.19 billion. Designed with institutional-grade capital efficiency and composability in mind, mETH enables institutions to access Ethereum-native yield through a fully composable and capital-efficient framework.
To date, over 170,000 mETH (approximately $455 million) has been restaked into EigenDA, securing Mantle’s modular data availability layer. Validator operations are distributed across leading infrastructure providers, including Stakefish, P2P.org, Blockdaemon, A41, and Veda, ensuring high availability and robust institutional reliability.
“Republic Technologies’ participation highlights mETH Protocol’s ability to support institutional strategies built natively on Ethereum,” said Jonathan Low, Growth Lead at mETH Protocol. “As demand accelerates for ETH-native yield and utility, we remain focused on building resilient infrastructure that long-term allocators can trust.”
Looking Ahead: MI4 and Mantle Banking
The partnership precedes mETH’s inclusion in MI4, a tokenized, yield-focused index fund developed in collaboration with Securitize—the tokenization firm behind BlackRock’s BUIDL and Apollo’s ACRED. Backed by up to $400 million anchor investment from the Mantle Treasury, MI4 targets $1 billion in AUM and will offer regulated exposure to BTC, ETH, SOL, stablecoins, and select staking assets, with mETH playing a central role in its ETH allocation strategy.
In parallel, Mantle is preparing to extend mETH’s utility across traditional finance through Mantle Banking, an initiative that will integrate mETH into fiat rails, credit products, and conventional payment systems. This integration will allow users to spend, borrow, and invest with mETH across traditional payment rails, unlocking real-world utility for digital assets.
About Mantle Ecosystem
A pioneering on-chain ecosystem dedicated to revolutionizing the future of finance and blockchain scalability, seamlessly bridging traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi). Through innovative products like Mantle Network, mETH Protocol, Function (FBTC), and Mantle Index Four (MI4), Mantle’s ecosystem empowers users and institutions with a unified financial services platform, redefining how the world spends, saves, and invests in the Web 3.0 era.
For more information, users can visit: https://group.mantle.xyz/
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