CME Group Sues CFTC Over Perpetual-Contracts Approval

By Jessica Corso

CME Group is challenging the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's decision to approve the listing of perpetual contracts, arguing in a lawsuit that the agency "overrode Congress's definition of the term 'swap'" when it gave Kalshi the green light last month to allow trading on bitcoin spot prices. 

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Bank Regulators Float Joint Stablecoin Customer ID Rule

By Aislinn Keely

Banking regulators Thursday collectively proposed customer identification standards for stablecoin issuers in a joint rulemaking under the federal stablecoin framework, the Genius Act.

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DC Circ. Sends CFPB Layoff Fight Back To District Court

By Jon Hill

The D.C. Circuit has declined to give the Trump administration an immediate green light for a plan to lay off around half of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's remaining workforce, instead handing it off for a Washington, D.C., federal judge to review first.

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FTX Trust Cleared For $600M Disputed Claim Fund Reduction

By Vince Sullivan

The FTX Recovery Trust received approval Thursday from a Delaware bankruptcy court to reduce the funds in a disputed claims reserve by $600 million after the trust processed thousands of claims that were either allowed or modified.

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Kalshi Urges 6th Circ. To Keep Tenn. Sports Contracts Online

By Alex Lawson

Kalshi has asked the Sixth Circuit to ensure that its sports contract offerings remain online in Tennessee while a lawsuit over their legality proceeds, once again drawing a bright line between its services and conventional sports betting.

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SEC, CFTC Could Change Dodd-Frank Swap Rules

By Jessica Corso

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission indicated Thursday they are preparing to change the definition of "swap" to "address longstanding ambiguities" that the agencies said have existed since the Dodd-Frank Act was adopted in 2010.

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'Bitcoin Rodney' Admits To Role In $1.8B HyperFund Scheme

By Rae Ann Varona

A Miami resident who goes by "Bitcoin Rodney" pled guilty to his role promoting a cryptocurrency fraud scheme that prosecutors alleged defrauded $1.8 billion from investors of the cryptocurrency project HyperFund, federal prosecutors in Maryland have announced.

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Bitcoin Thief Tells 2nd Circ. Resentence Violates Constitution

By Stewart Bishop

Counsel for a convicted Florida bitcoin fraudster who was sentenced to 12 years in prison for failing to pay over $20 million in restitution stemming from his role in a crypto heist on Thursday told the Second Circuit that the lower court's resentencing trampled on the constitutional rights of her client, who "never got due process at any stage."

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Blackstone's LivCor Cuts $7M Rent-Fixing Deal With 9 States

By Dorothy Atkins

Blackstone subsidiary LivCor LLC has agreed to pay North Carolina, California and seven other states $7 million in penalties to resolve allegations against it in a sprawling antitrust lawsuit alleging major landlords used software company RealPage to fix rent prices, according to documents filed in North Carolina federal court Thursday.

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Payment Co. Marqeta And Investors Ink $13M Deal

By Sydney Price

Card issuing and transaction processing company Marqeta Inc. has reached a $13 million deal with shareholders that would end claims it concealed the effects that heightened regulatory scrutiny of its small bank partners would have on the growth of its business.

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Cere Execs Look To Arbitrate $100M Crypto Network Suit

By Joyce Hanson

A co-founder of cryptocurrency-associated data cloud platform Cere Network is seeking to compel arbitration in a case before a California federal judge over a purported cryptocurrency fraud scheme that sold about $41 million in Cere tokens on exchanges and misappropriated investor funds.

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Deals Rumor Mill

DeepSeek's Valuation Soars To $50B, Plus More Rumors

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Artificial intelligence company DeepSeek hit a $50 billion valuation following its latest funding round, the original backers of artificial intelligence company Manus are planning to buy the company back from Meta, and private equity shop KKR wants to buy a majority stake in the Indian business of Sweden's Medicover for at least $1 billion.

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Troutman, Bennett Jones Guide Deluxe On $625M Celero Buy

By Al Barbarino

Deluxe said it has agreed to purchase payments company Celero Commerce for about $625 million in cash, with Troutman Pepper Locke LLP and Bennett Jones LLP advising Deluxe and DLA Piper representing Celero. 

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'Honeypot' Suit Spotlights Nuances Of Trade Secret Law

Fintech company MyCard's recent complaint filed in Delaware federal court, alleging that competitor Atomic FI copied its proprietary software, including a "honeypot" in the form of a specific 37-character string, highlights fact-intensive questions of when alleged trade secrets are actually secret, says Eugene Mar at Farella Braun.

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Class Actions Have Entered The Fight Over Prediction Markets

While disputes brought by states over the regulation of prediction markets have claimed most of the headlines, class actions brought by ordinary citizens, particularly in Kentucky and Massachusetts, represent another avenue to challenge the legality of the prediction markets themselves, says Laura Chiu at DarrowEverett.

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A Lender's Guide To Fraud: Identifying Risks

The evolving lending landscape, particularly the private credit boom, has heightened lenders' exposure to fraud, but recent bankruptcies demonstrate where fraud risks most commonly materialize and how banks can mitigate exposure at the outset, say attorneys at Moore & Van Allen.

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Series

Founding An Autism Academy Made Me A Better Lawyer

Starting a nonprofit autism school with no building, no funding model and no guarantee that families would trust us taught me the importance of mission, patience and purpose — lessons that sharpened my practice and showed how meaningful work outside the office can make lawyers better, says Phillip Russell at Ogletree Deakins.

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Judiciary Cites AI Deepfakes In Opposing Courtroom Cameras

By Courtney Bublé

Two bipartisan bills to bring cameras into federal courtrooms advanced Thursday, but the policymaking body for the federal judiciary continues to oppose them and raised the issue of deepfakes in the age of artificial intelligence.

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Trump Lawyer Advances In Senate Judiciary Noms Vote

By Courtney Bublé

The nomination of Matthew Schwartz to be a judge on the Second Circuit advanced out of committee Thursday.

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'Mortified' Atty Takes Blame For Fake Quotes In Taco TM Fight

By Ivan Moreno

A Connecticut attorney facing possible sanctions over fake case quotations in a taco restaurant trademark fight told a federal judge that he takes "full and unqualified responsibility" for the flawed filings, saying he is "mortified" and acknowledging that his verification process for AI-assisted legal work fell far short.

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Calif. Moves On Proposal To Allow Legal Aid By Nonlawyers

By Lynn LaRowe

The California Supreme Court has directed the state bar to solicit public comments on a proposed community justice worker program that would allow nonlawyers to provide limited legal assistance under the supervision of qualified legal aid organizations, according to a Thursday announcement.

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Analysis

Law Students Undeterred Under Trump's Immigration Climate

By Britain Eakin

In a climate where immigration lawyers are coming under the Trump administration’s scrutiny to tamp down on asylum fraud, law students are being ignited to enter the workforce early and rectify the injustices they see.

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Mich. Panel Sanctions Atty Over AI-Hallucinated Cases

By Susan Smiley

A medical malpractice suit in the Michigan Court of Appeals led to financial sanctions against an attorney who the court said during litigation repeatedly cited nonexistent cases that were generated by artificial intelligence.

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Ford Says 'Lemon Law' Firm Faked Bills Using Overseas Staff

By Linda Chiem

Ford Motor Co. accused California personal injury firm Quill & Arrow LLP of defrauding it out of more than $25 million in high-priced legal bills for work actually handled by virtual assistants overseas and non-lawyers in scores of product liability cases against the automaker.

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NY High Court Upholds Mandatory Judge Retirement Age

By Dorothy Atkins

New York's highest court Thursday affirmed a ruling that rejected jurists' challenges to the Empire State's mandatory retirement age of 70 for state judges and justices, finding that the centuries-old constitutional mandate doesn't conflict with a recent state civil rights amendment banning age discrimination.

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Tort Report: Meta Set To Face Facebook Sex Trafficking Trial

By Y. Peter Kang

An upcoming trial in Texas for a first-of-its-kind case against Meta and claims against a health clinic owned by a U.S. senator lead Law360's Tort Report, which compiles recent personal injury and medical malpractice news that may have flown under the radar.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

General counsel may cringe at the news, but their chief financial officers will rejoice over a new study that shows the average spending by legal departments dropped to a six-year low in 2026. And two in-house Cigna lawyers are at the center of a finding of "improperly asserted privilege" over key company documents related to a payment lawsuit brought by three labs.

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