• The U.S. court recently ruled that using certain emojis relating to rocket ships, stock charts, and money bags in promotional materials could be classified as investment advice.
• Former SEC branch chief Lisa Braganca warned the public against using such emojis following this ruling.
• This ruling was made in a lawsuit filed against Dapper Labs and its CEO Roham Gharegozlou for allegedly violating securities laws by offering NBA Top Shot Moments.
Court Ruling Classifies Emojis as Investment Advice
The U.S. court recently ruled that using certain emojis relating to rocket ships, stock charts, and money bags in promotional materials could be classified as investment advice. This ruling was made in a lawsuit filed against Dapper Labs and its CEO Roham Gharegozlou for allegedly violating securities laws by offering NBA Top Shot Moments, which are non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that capture key highlights and video clips from NBA games.
Former SEC Branch Chief Warns Against Using Emojis
Following this ruling, former SEC branch chief Lisa Braganca issued a warning via Twitter against using such emojis in promotional materials. She referenced a tweet by DapperLabs which used the rocket ship, stock market, and money bags emoji to show market performance and argued that it constituted investment advice due to its objective meaning of financial return on investment despite the lack of literal use of the word “profit” in any of the tweets.
Crypto Community Reacts to Ruling
Several members of the crypto community argued that a rule on emoji usage could impede freedom of speech since emojis can mean different things to different people. The court filing also noted that Dapper Labs used carefully selected emojis with an intention to promote sales rather than provide accuracy on market data as they had claimed previously.
NBA Top Shot Moments
NBA Top Shot Moments are non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that capture key highlights and video clips from NBA games offered by Dapper Labs through their marketing materials with carefully selected emojis which were accused of being promoted as investments opportunities leading up to this lawsuit against them for alleged violation of securities laws.
Conclusion
In conclusion, using certain emojis relating to rocket ships, stock charts or money bags can now be classified under investment advice according to recent court rulings prompting former SEC branch chief Lisa Braganca’s warning against their use in promotional materials while referencing a tweet by DapperLabs which was perceived as promoting sales rather than providing accuracy on market data when looking at its objective meaning of financial return on investment despite no literal use of the word “profit” being included in any tweets referencing these NFTs – NBA Top Shot Moments – offered by them previously before this lawsuit was brought upon them alleging violation of securities laws