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Court Declines To Dismiss Securities Class Action Alleging That DraftKings NFTs Are ‘Securities’

Securities litigation arising from the purchase or sale of digital products such as cryptocurrencies, nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and security tokens has proliferated in recent years. A gating question in these cases is whether...more

Inside the Courts – An Update From Skadden Securities Litigators - May 2024

Spotlight - Macquarie Ruling Raises the Bar for Securities Fraud Claims - Key Points - - On April 12, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously reversed and vacated the Second Circuit’s decision in Macquarie...more

The Distributed Ledger: Blockchain, Digital Assets and Smart Contracts - January 2024

SEC Wins Summary Judgment on Howey Issue in Terraform Litigation - On December 28, 2023, Judge Jed Rakoff in the Southern District of New York issued a summary judgment decision in SEC v. Terraform Labs Pte. Ltd., a...more

Fifth Circuit Reverses CFTC Penalty Judgment Under ‘Fair Notice’ Doctrine

On January 8, 2024, in a decision that underscores the potential viability of fair-notice defenses to U.S. regulators’ rule interpretations, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed a $6.5 million penalty...more

CFTC Charges DeFi Developers With Facilitating Off-Exchange Trading

On September 7, 2023, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued three enforcement settlement orders against developers of decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols. The orders charge Opyn, Inc., Deridex, Inc., and...more

Inside the Courts – An Update From Skadden Securities Litigators - September 2023

Two Sides of the Same Coin: Analyzing the Recent Ripple and Terraform Decisions - Key Points - - In July 2023, Judges Torres and Rakoff in the Southern District of New York issued rulings on whether digital asset sales...more

DOJ Relies on Traditional Statutes To Charge Defendants in Cryptoasset Fraud Cases

Two recent indictments highlight the Department of Justice’s (DOJ’s) continuing use of the traditional wire fraud, money laundering and identity theft statutes to pursue fraud involving digital assets, indicating that law...more

New Senate Crypto Bill Would Limit SEC Regulatory Role in Favor of CFTC

A bipartisan bill introduced in the U.S. Senate last week seeks “to bring crypto assets within the regulatory perimeter” by granting oversight responsibility to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for most forms...more

Ripple Labs : District Court Holds That Direct Digital Token Sales Constituted Investment Contracts Under Howey, but Other...

On July 13, 2023, Judge Torres of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York issued a much-awaited summary judgment decision in SEC v. Ripple Labs, Inc., No. 1:20-cv-10832-AT-SN (S.D.N.Y. July 13, 2023),...more

Court Ruling Could Affect the Future Direction of DAOs

A March 27, 2023, decision by a California federal court in a putative class action, Sarcuni v. bZx DAO, has brought into focus how courts might construe the legal existence of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs)....more

NYAG Files Action Against Crypto Trading Platform, Takes Position That ETH Is a Security

On March 9, 2023, the New York State Attorney General’s Office (NYAG) filed a lawsuit charging crypto trading platform KuCoin for “failing to register as a securities and commodities broker-dealer and falsely representing...more

Suit Alleging NBA ‘Top Shot’ NFTs Were Securities Survives Motion To Dismiss

On February 22, 2023, Judge Victor Marrero of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York issued an order in Friel v. Dapper Labs, Inc., denying Dapper Labs and its CEO’s motion to dismiss a putative...more

Digital Asset Insider Trading Case Could Provide Sought-After Guidance to Industry

On February 7, 2023, Ishan Wahi (Ishan), a former Coinbase product manager, pled guilty to wire fraud charges in an indictment in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (SDNY)....more

Recent Actions by the Fed Show Its Continued Cautious Approach to Cryptoasset Activities by Supervised Institutions

In the past year, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the Board) Biden administration officials, and other U.S. banking regulators have repeatedly voiced growing concerns about certain cryptoasset...more

US Regulators Express Concern About Banks’ Exposure to Cryptoasset Risks

On January 3, 2023, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Federal Reserve), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued a Joint Statement on...more

Rise in Crypto Securities Filings Could Persist

Increased regulatory oversight and recent turmoil in the digital asset market have led to a rising number of securities litigations focusing on cryptocurrencies. Sixteen cryptocurrency-related class actions have been filed...more

Inside the Courts – An Update From Skadden Securities Litigators - December 2022

Cornerstone Research reports that during the first six months of 2022, plaintiffs filed 110 securities class actions, a pace that is generally in line — 2.8% higher — with what we saw in the second half of 2021. Looking...more

Court Rules in Favor of SEC in LBRY Enforcement Action

On November 7, 2022, Judge Paul Barbadoro of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire issued an order in SEC v. LBRY, Inc., granting the SEC’s motion for summary judgment against LBRY Inc. (LBRY). The court...more

Four States Take Enforcement Actions Against Virtual Casino for Allegedly Offering NFTs That Were Securities

State securities regulators in Alabama, Kentucky, New Jersey and Texas filed coordinated enforcement actions on October 20, 2022, against Slotie NFT d/b/a slotie.com requiring the company to stop selling various Slotie...more

15th Annual Securities Litigation and Regulatory Enforcement Update: State of the Cryptocurrency Market

On October 11, 2022, Skadden held the first program, “State of the Cryptocurrency Market,” in our 15th Annual Securities Litigation and Regulatory Enforcement Update series. The panelists for this presentation were Alex...more

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