• The former SEC chief, Lisa Braganca, has warned investors against using emojis for investment advice following a court ruling that classified DapperLabs’ use of emojis as investment advice.
• The lawsuit was filed against Dapper Labs and its CEO Roham Gharegozlou for allegedly violating securities laws by offering its NBA Top Shot Moments.
• Judge Victor Marrero ruled that using emojis relating to rocket ships, stock charts, and money bags could be classified as investment advice.
Former SEC Chief Warns Against Using Emojis for Investment Advice
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) branch chief Lisa Braganca has recently issued a warning against the public from using certain emojis in promotional materials following a court ruling that classified DapperLabs‘ use of emojis as investment advice. This recent warning came after a lawsuit was filed against Dapper Labs and its CEO Roham Gharegozlou for allegedly violating securities laws by offering its NBA Top Shot Moments.
Court Ruling on Use of Emojis
Judge Victor Marrero ruled that using emojis relating to rocket ships, stock charts, and money bags could be classified as investment advice in the case between the plaintiffs and Dapper Labs. This ruling was based off of a tweet in which the company used these specific emojis to show market performance. The filing stated „… although the literal word “profit” is not included in any of the Tweets, the “rocket ship” emoji, “stock chart” emoji, and “money bags” emoji objectively mean one thing: a financial return on investment.“
NBA Top Shot Moments
NBA Top Shot Moments are non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that capture key highlights and video clips from NBA games. The plaintiffs accused Dapper Labs of promoting these moments as an investments opportunity through their marketing material with carefully selected emojis.
Dapper Lab’s Response
Dapper labs has argued that they used the emojis in their tweets to provide accuracy to market data rather than promote sales however several members of the crypto community have argued that Emoji’s could mean different things to different folks therefore having rules about it’s usage would impede freedom of speech
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is important for investors to take caution when viewing promotional materials related to investments opportunities especially when it contains potentially misleading symbols or icons like emoji’s . It is also important for companies who are marketing potential investments opportunities to be aware of legal restrictions so they don’t end up running into trouble with government agencies like what happened with Dapper Labs