Legal Expert: Meme Coin Community Takeover Team May Face Legal Risks

According to a report by Decrypt on September 9, following the Community Takeover (CTO) initiative, the market value of $Meme coin has repeatedly hit new highs. Legal experts warn that CTO teams may face multiple legal risks. Charlyn Ho, founder and managing partner of Rikka Law, stated that the biggest legal risks for CTO teams come from misleading marketing, unfair or deceptive trading practices, and may even constitute criminal false statements or fraud.

Intellectual property issues should not be overlooked. Andrew Rossow, CEO of AR Media, pointed out that as the original developers have usually left the project, CTO teams continuing to use the original name, logo, and colors may infringe on intellectual property rights. He suggested that CTO teams should make efforts to contact the original developers to obtain authorization for use.

Some CTO teams are actually led by the original token deployers, aiming to attract investment through decentralized narratives. In response, Hon Ng, Chief Legal Officer of Bitget, emphasized that this practice does not exempt them from legal responsibility. If the actions are deemed as manipulation, fraud, or illegal, they will still face legal consequences.

Despite the objective existence of legal risks, considering the speculative nature of $meme coins, lawyer Jacob Martin believes that the likelihood of actual legal enforcement is low. As of the time of drafting, prominent CTO projects such as Billy and Gigachad have not encountered significant legal challenges.