On October 23, 2023, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (proposed rule) addressing “mixing transactions” that involve convertible...more
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently announced charges against and settlements with two NFT issuers for allegedly conducting illegally unregistered offers and sales of securities in the form of...more
A pair of recent rulings from the Southern District of New York (SDNY) have potentially increased confusion around the regulatory status of crypto asset regulation—but may also provide some interesting signs of what’s to...more
More than two years after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) introduced a new class of “special purpose broker-dealers” authorized to custody crypto asset securities, the first special purpose broker-dealer...more
The staff of the Division of Corporation Finance at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently provided guidance for public companies regarding disclosures pertaining to recent developments in crypto asset...more
Welcome to Wilson Sonsini’s Focus on Fintech newsletter. This quarterly newsletter provides ongoing analysis and commentary on regulatory developments impacting the fintech industry.
The third quarter of 2022 has been a...more
11/2/2022
/ Banking Sector ,
Banks ,
CFTC ,
Crypto Exchanges ,
Cryptoassets ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Financial Crimes ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FinCEN ,
FinTech ,
Payment Systems
In an unprecedented enforcement action, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) brought insider trading charges against a former Coinbase manager and two others related to buying 25 tokens ahead of Coinbase's...more
Until September 30, 2019, Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) enforcement actions in the crypto industry conveyed a consistent message: most crypto is a security, and if a token issuer does not follow the registration...more
10/18/2019
/ Blockchain ,
Crypto Exchanges ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) ,
Penalties ,
Registration Requirement ,
Regulation A ,
Regulation D ,
Securities Act of 1933 ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Exchange Act ,
Securities Regulation ,
Securities Violations ,
Settlement Offer ,
Token Sales
In an important step, the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") has released a cease-and-desist order against Zachary Coburn, the founder of EtherDelta, a well-known online platform for trading Ether and ERC20-based...more