Recent Securities Class Actions Targeting ICOs Raise Variety of Complex Legal Issues

BakerHostetler
Contact

On April 3, 2020, exactly one year after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued its “Framework for ‘Investment Contracts’ Analysis of Digital Assets” (Framework), 11 class action lawsuits were filed in the Southern District of New York by two law firms representing various combinations of four proposed lead plaintiffs. The lawsuits all name as defendants companies and affiliated individuals involved in creating blockchain networks and platforms for various business activities that either distributed blockchain-based cryptographic assets (tokens) in initial coin offerings (ICOs) or operated trading platforms (exchanges) for the purchase and exchange of such tokens. The 11 complaints rely on the same essential legal theories—that the original token sales were unregistered securities offerings and the exchanges that facilitated secondary token sales were unlicensed securities dealers. In this article, the authors analyze these claims and discuss some of the potential defenses to them.

Please see full publication below for more information.

LOADING PDF: If there are any problems, click here to download the file.

DISCLAIMER: Because of the generality of this update, the information provided herein may not be applicable in all situations and should not be acted upon without specific legal advice based on particular situations.

© BakerHostetler | Attorney Advertising

Written by:

BakerHostetler
Contact
more
less

BakerHostetler on:

Reporters on Deadline

"My best business intelligence, in one easy email…"

Your first step to building a free, personalized, morning email brief covering pertinent authors and topics on JD Supra:
*By using the service, you signify your acceptance of JD Supra's Privacy Policy.
Custom Email Digest
- hide
- hide