David C. Silver, the prolific financial securities lawyer from law firm Silver Miller and self-confessed “believer” in blockchain technology has told Cointelegraph that he wants to see more clarity, rather than more regulation, in the cryptocurrency space.
Silver, often labeled a “Better Call Saul” lawyer due to his apparent readiness to take on numerous cases involving clients aggrieved in their dealings with cryptocurrency exchanges, claims that he “didn’t get into the space for any other reason than [that] someone lost money”.
In his career, he’s taken on many of the big exchanges in lawsuits, including Coinbase, Kraken and Bitconnect, to name just a few. His law firm sees itself as a “strong advocate for aggrieved investors harmed by the misrepresentations and illegal actions of cryptocurrency exchanges and issuers”.
Silver’s first lawsuit was against US exchange Cryptsy in 2104. CEO Paul Vernon was found guilty in 2017 of stealing BTC 11,325.0961 (about USD 105 million at the time). He was ordered to pay damages to customers of USD 8.2 million, a lawsuit which earnt Silver the tag “the most prolific lawyer in cryptocurrency in the United States” from legal news source Law 360.
Crypto exchange and wallet service Coinbase is one of the companies under scrutiny by Silver Miller. The law firm has multiple complaints against the company. It is now investigating complaints cover accusations of Bitcoin Cash (BCH) insider trading, undelivered funds, platform breakdowns and loss of account access.
A recent lawsuit has been filed against altcoin Nano, alleging that they sold unregistered securities as well as negligently misrepresented the reliability of crypto exchange BitGrail – which was hacked for USD 150 million in Nano in February.
When questioned on the current status quo regarding cryptocurrency regulation, Silver called for “clarity”, which should, he maintains, come from federal level in a “unified manner”. He feels that the current system of different rules and definitions seemingly coming from all directions from multiple sources doesn’t offer the clarity the industry currently needs.
Currently, there are five agencies involved in discussing and setting cryptocurrency regulation in the US, including the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), FinCEN, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
image source: https://pixabay.com/en/justice-right-legal-lawyer-word-2755765/ – CQF Avocat
