Uphold HQ Defeats Digital Asset Interest Product False-Ad Suit

Consumers alleging digital money platform Uphold HQ Inc. deceptively advertised a financial product as “safe” and “fully hedged” failed to show those marketing statements would be materially misleading to reasonable viewers, a federal judge said.

Comparisons of the product to a “traditional banking product” are non-actionable statements of puffery rather than a material misrepresentation, the US District Court for the Southern District of New York said Thursday. Judge Laura Taylor Swain dismissed the suit with prejudice.

The consumers said Uphold’s “Earn” product worked with what the platform called “US dollar Stablecoin,” a digital asset backed one-to-one with US dollars. Uphold ...