Late on Wednesday, a federal judge decided that two groups of cryptocurrency supporters could make the case that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) shouldn’t be allowed to serve DAO members through a website help bot.
LeXpunK Army, a collective of attorneys and software developers, as well as the DeFi Education Fund (DEF), a lobbying organization, were given permission to submit amicus briefs, also known as friends of the court briefs, by U.S. District Judge William Orrick of the Northern District of California.
In their request to join the case, the two parties asserted that the CFTC should designate and directly serve Ooki DAO defendants in a complaint alleging that they broke federal law, instead of serving the DAO directly through a website chat bot.
The CFTC sued Ooki DAO last month on the grounds that — like its forerunner company bZeroX — the collective group sold illegally leveraged and margin trading products.
While the regulator reached an agreement with the company’s founders on the bZeroX charges, it was unable to determine the primary parties connected to the DAO and instead requested authorization to serve it via posts on forums and chat bots.
A controversial claim made by the CFTC was that each voting member of the DAO should be held personally accountable for the illegal activities.
On the same day when LeXpunk submitted its application for leave to file the amicus brief, Judge Orrick rendered a decision in the CFTC’s favor. DEF submitted its own motion a few days after that.
LeXpunK has until October 17 to submit its amicus brief, according to Wednesday’s ruling. In addition to their application for leave, DeFi Fund submitted an amicus brief.
The judge stated: “Additionally, I interpret these requests as Motions for Reconsideration regarding my decision to permit alternative service in this case.”
The DEF and LeXpunK filings must be opposed by the CFTC by November 7; the two organizations will then have one week to respond to the CFTC’s motion. A hearing will be held to discuss the motions on the 30th of November.
Read More: Ooki DAO Members Could Be Held Back by Fears From Responding Back to Lawsuit
