What legal issues might crypto face?

In December 2020, the US Securities and Exchange Commission filed an action against Ripple Labs Inc. and two of its executives and security holders. According to the complaint, they, starting in 2013, raised over $1.3 billion through an unregistered, ongoing digital asset known as XRP offering to investors in the U.S. and worldwide. Ripple also allegedly distributed billions of XRP in exchange for non-cash consideration, such as labour and market-making services. Their actions were against the registration provisions of the US federal securities laws.
Thus, regulators may now be scrutinising other crypto assets and start-ups, meaning that centralised ‘blockchain’ projects that are based in a specific jurisdiction could be at risk of retrospective action. New investors should consult knowledgeable advisors to ensure the projects that interest them are not vulnerable to being shut down, which can lead to a huge price decrease within minutes. Other large-cap projects that face potential legal issues this year are Bitcoin SV (a controversial ‘forked’ imitation of Bitcoin) and the Tether USDT stablecoin, which still has to answer some serious questions about its relationship with the crypto exchange Bitfinex.