"Pantera Founder Faces Tax Probe; Argentine President Accused of Crypto Fraud; SEC Delays Coinbase Response"

The founder of Pantera Capital, Dan Morehead, is facing a tax probe by the U.S. Senate Finance Committee (SFC) over $850 million in profits earned after moving to Puerto Rico in 2020. The SFC alleges that Morehead may have treated these profits as exempt from U.S. tax, prompting an investigation into tax compliance among wealthy Americans who have moved to Puerto Rico.

In a separate development, Argentine lawyers have hit Argentina's President Javier Milei with fraud charges over his promotion of a crypto asset called Libra (LIBRA). The token briefly pumped to a market capitalization of $4.56 billion on Feb. 14 when Milei posted about the token, only to fall by over 94% after he deleted the post. Lawyers Marcos Zelaya and Jonatan Baldiviezo, along with engineer María Eva Koutsovitis and economist Claudio Lozano, filed a criminal complaint against the Argentine president, alleging that Milei was complicit in fraud by promoting the token.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has requested an additional 28 days to respond to Coinbase's appeal in its ongoing lawsuit. The agency cited the work of its new crypto division as a potential factor in resolving the legal battle. Meanwhile, Coinbase agreed to the SEC's request to extend its response deadline from Feb. 14 to March 14.

The SEC's crypto task force has met with representatives from various crypto and traditional finance organizations to discuss regulations impacting digital assets. The task force held meetings with the Blockchain Association, Jito Labs, Multicoin Capital, Nasdaq, Andreessen Horowitz, and Sullivan & Cromwell between Feb. 5 and Feb. 7. Topics discussed included reviewing and correcting "erroneous interpretations of the law," adding staking to exchange-traded products (ETPs), and token classification and issuance.

SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce has stated that memecoins like Official Trump (TRUMP) are outside the agency's jurisdiction. Peirce suggested that the regulation of memecoins would likely fall under the purview of other agencies and Congress. Her comments came as 813,000 wallets lost $2 billion after buying the TRUMP memecoin, which lost 80% of its value after peaking at $72.60 with a market capital