Decentralized autonomous organizations: Have we seen the last of immunity?

By Benjamin Bathgate and Madeline Klimek (July 12, 2023, 12:31 PM EDT) -- On June 8, 2023, U.S. District Judge William H. Orrick, in a default judgment (COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING COMMISSION v. OOKI DAO, Case 3:22-cv-05416-WHO), ordered DeFi trading platform Ooki DAO (Ooki) to pay a civil monetary penalty of $643,542 for operating an illegal trading platform and unlawfully acting as a futures commission merchant. In addition, Ooki was banned from trading and was ordered to shut down its website and remove its content from the Internet. It was a shot across the bow for all those believers in DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) structural “immunity.”...