• Former SEC chief Lisa Braganca warns against using emojis for investment advice.
• This follows a U.S court ruling that classifying DapperLabs’ use of certain emojis as investment advice.
• The court ruling referred to tweets containing the rocket ship, stock chart, and money bags emoji.
SEC Chief Warns Against Use Of Emojis For Investment Advice
Former SEC branch chief Lisa Braganca has warned the public against using certain emojis in promotional materials following a recent ruling by a U.S court that classified DapperLabs‘ use of these emojis as investment advice.
Background Of The Court Ruling
The ruling came as part of a lawsuit filed against Dapper Labs and its CEO Roham Gharegozlou for allegedly violating securities laws by offering its NBA Top Shot Moments which are non-fungible tokens (NFT) that capture key highlights and video clips from NBA games. The plaintiffs accused Dapper Labs of promoting NBA Shot Moments as investment opportunities through its marketing materials with carefully selected emojis including the rocket ship, stock market, and money bags emoji. The filing stated that “… 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.“
Dapper Lab’s Response
However, Dapper Labs argued that their use of these emojis was intended to provide accuracy to market data rather than promote sales or act as an endorsement for investing in their products. Several members of the crypto community have argued that Emojis could mean different things to different folks thus any rule on their usage would impinge on freedom of speech.
Final Thoughts
This warning from former SEC chief Lisa Braganca serves as an important reminder to crypto users who may be tempted to use certain emoticons in promotional material associated with investments to consider whether those images could be interpreted as suggesting potential profits or returns on investments when used together with other words or images in the same tweet or post.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is important for crypto users to understand that even seemingly innocuous images such as emojis can be interpreted differently by different people and can potentially lead to legal trouble if used incorrectly when referring to investments or profits related activities online.