Judge issues Allen charge after jury deadlocks in Tornado Cash trial, keeping the case alive as questions mount over crypto developer liability. After four days of deliberations, jurors in the Roman Storm trial told the court they remain deadlocked on some charges, prompting the use of an Allen charge to encourage further discussion. An Allen charge, sometimes called a “dynamite charge,” is a special instruction a judge gives to a deadlocked jury, urging them to re-examine their positions and attempt to reach a unanimous verdict. According to court reports on Wednesday by Inner City Press, Storm’s lawyer Brian Klein opposed the charge, arguing that the jury had made it clear a unanimous verdict was unlikely and instead urged the court to consider accepting a partial verdict. Read more
Initial DEX offerings have strayed from their retail-first promise, becoming dominated by institutions and high barriers to entry. IDOs could reclaim their promise. Opinion by: Hatu Sheikh, founder of Coin Terminal Crypto has largely failed retail investors. Insiders and institutions scoop up lucrative opportunities before they hit the open markets. Memecoins and purely speculative plays are the only ways for retail investors to reclaim their stake in the pie. They remain exposed to a “crime supercycle” that began with unregulated initial coin offerings (ICOs) in 2017-18. At the time, initial DEX offerings (IDOs) emerged to provide retail investors with open, fair access to early-stage projects. Gradually, though, high threshold requirements, long vesting periods and information asymmetry put most IDOs off-limits for retail investors. Read more