The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (the Proposal) on September 17, 2024, that seeks to strengthen recordkeeping for bank deposits held by nonbank companies on behalf of...more
9/23/2024
/ Annual Reports ,
Anti-Money Laundering ,
Bankruptcy Court ,
Bankruptcy Trustees ,
Beneficial Owner ,
Commercial Bankruptcy ,
Compliance ,
Deposit Accounts ,
FDIC ,
Financial Institutions ,
FinTech ,
Internal Controls ,
Investment ,
Misrepresentation ,
Non-Bank Lenders ,
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) ,
Policies and Procedures ,
Popular ,
Proposed Amendments ,
Recordkeeping Requirements ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Securities ,
Third-Party
On January 10, the Securities and Exchange Commission gave the green light to 11 issuers that applied for bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). After a false announcement and a course change due to the ruling in Grayscale...more
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) published a proposed rule on November 7, 2023, that, if finalized, would subject to its supervisory authority certain Big Tech firms and other nonbank companies operating in the...more
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have been widely adopted by the sports, arts, music, gaming, fashion, and other industries. Behind the hype is a fast-developing ecosystem of technical and commercial innovation that is embracing...more
6/15/2022
/ Blockchain ,
Commodities ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Digital Media ,
Emerging Markets ,
Innovative Technology ,
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) ,
Online Marketplace ,
Popular ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
Farmers play an important role in all of our lives. They grow the food that the rest of us need to survive. The practices of farming have evolved over time and some argue that adopting a change to modern farming techniques...more
The staffs of the Division of Trading and Markets (Division) of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) (collectively, the “Regulators”) published a joint...more
7/18/2019
/ Books & Records ,
Broker-Dealer ,
Customer Protection Rule ,
Digital Assets ,
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Initial Coin Offering (ICOs) ,
Investment Management ,
Joint Statements ,
Over The Counter Derivatives (OTC) ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
SIPA
Recently, Forbes published an article detailing the ways that large companies, including some of the best-known companies in tech, finance, manufacturing and retail, are forming or joining blockchain consortia or other...more
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Strategic Hub for Innovation and Financial Technology (FinHub) published a framework on April 3, 2019, for analyzing whether a digital asset is offered and sold as a security...more
On October 18, 2018, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), announced the launch of the agency’s Strategic Hub for Innovation and Financial Technology (FinHub). FinHub is a resource for industry engagement between...more
On October 11, 2018, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) released an advisory (the Advisory) intended to help money services businesses (MSBs) and foreign financial institutions...more
During a speech in San Francisco last week at the Yahoo Finance All Markets Summit, William Hinman, Director of the Division of Corporation Finance of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), provided some welcome...more
6/25/2018
/ Bitcoin ,
Certificate of Deposit ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Ether ,
Howey ,
Initial Coin Offering (ICOs) ,
Investment Advisers Act of 1940 ,
Investment Company Act of 1940 ,
Investment Contract ,
Investors ,
Securities Act of 1933 ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Exchange Act ,
Token Sales
Just like the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is actively policing the virtual currency market. On January 24, 2018, the CFTC announced an enforcement action against...more
On July 25, 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) released groundbreaking materials relating to blockchain tokens. These materials provide significant and welcome insight to the SEC’s and its staff’s thinking...more
7/27/2017
/ Alternative Trading System (ATS) ,
Blockchain ,
Digital Currency ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Markets ,
Initial Coin Offering (ICOs) ,
Investment Advisers Act of 1940 ,
Investment Company Act of 1940 ,
Investor Advisory Committee ,
Popular ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Exchange Act ,
Unregistered Securities ,
Virtual Currency
Smart contracts have received significant attention from legal academics and attorneys for the impact they may have on contract law and the role of lawyers. Some have also identified and described a series of use cases for...more
Purpose -
Distributed ledger technology (“DLT”), including the use of blockchain technology, has been touted as a way to create and validate digital identities that serve many of the same purposes that physical forms of...more
5/22/2017
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Blockchain ,
Compliance ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Security ,
Digital Data ,
Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) ,
Ethereum ,
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) ,
Identity Protection Services ,
Identity Theft ,
Privacy Laws ,
Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) ,
Technology ,
UFADAA
On March 29, 2017, Perkins Coie partner Dax Hansen and associate Josh Boehm were invited to the Cyber Initiative at Stanford Law School to deliver a presentation on several cutting-edge legal issues relating to blockchain...more
4/15/2017
/ Bank Secrecy Act ,
Bankruptcy Code ,
Banks ,
Bitcoin ,
BitLicense ,
CFTC ,
Commodities ,
Custody Rule ,
FinCEN ,
Income Taxes ,
Money Transmitter ,
Ownership Requirements ,
Personal Property ,
Popular ,
Securities ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
In this white paper, we analyze the treatment of bitcoin under applicable U.S. property law. We conclude that property interests should exist in bitcoin under such law, and that multiple sources of persuasive authority...more
3/30/2017
/ Bankruptcy Code ,
Bitcoin ,
BitLicense ,
CFTC ,
Civil Forfeiture ,
Commodities ,
FDIC ,
FinCEN ,
Intangible Property ,
IRS ,
Popular ,
Property Ownership ,
UFADAA ,
Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) ,
Virtual Currency
Argentina -
Virtual currencies are not legal tender under the country’s National Constitution, which designates the Central Bank as the only authority that may issue legal tender. Although not specifically regulated,...more
1/27/2017
/ Banks ,
Bitcoin ,
Blockchain ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Currency ,
EU ,
European Banking Authority (EBA) ,
FATF ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Popular ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Technology ,
Virtual Currency
In addition to issuing warnings about their use, Argentina has suggested an increased interest in virtual currency transactions by requiring financial institutions and other entities to report virtual currency transactions...more
This chart is provided by Perkins Coie LLP’s Decentralized Virtual Currency industry practice group for informational purposes only and is not legal advice. This information is not intended to create, and receipt of it does...more
10/5/2015
/ AML/CFT ,
Anti-Money Laundering ,
Attorney-Client Privilege ,
Banking Sector ,
Banks ,
Bitcoin ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Cryptocurrency ,
CSSF ,
EU ,
European Banking Authority (EBA) ,
Financial Institutions ,
FSA ,
GST ,
HMRC ,
Money Laundering ,
PBOC ,
Popular ,
SFC ,
Terrorist Financing Regulations ,
Treasury ,
Value-Added Tax (VAT) ,
Virtual Currency ,
Young Lawyers
Federal authorities announced this week a settlement with Ripple Labs Inc. and its subsidiary, XRP Fund II, resolving an investigation by FinCEN and the Department of Justice into violations of the Bank Secrecy Act. ...more
The New York State Department of Financial Services (“NYDFS”) released its revised proposed BitLicense regulatory framework earlier today. Once the revised framework is published in the New York State Register, it will...more
Yesterday, December 16, 2014, the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (“CSBS”) released a Policy Statement on state virtual currency regulation, and a Draft Model Regulatory Framework (“Draft Framework”) to support its...more
The Ministry of Finance recently revised its proposed legislation banning virtual currency activity, reducing the applicable fines by approximately 20-50%. However...more
In what may be good news for emerging virtual currency companies and emerging payments companies, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) released a public statement yesterday regarding the willingness of banks to...more