On July 22, 2020, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”) published an Interpretive Letter (the “Letter”) declaring that national banks and federal savings associations (collectively, “national banks”) may...more
7/27/2020
/ Blockchain ,
Cryptoassets ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
International Banks ,
OCC ,
Recordkeeping Requirements ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Regulation
On February 6, 2020, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce presented her proposal of a new regulatory scheme for legal ICOs in the United States (“Safe Harbor”). To date, token issuers have struggled with the U.S. Securities and...more
2/10/2020
/ Anti-Fraud Provisions ,
Blockchain ,
Digital Assets ,
Grace Period ,
Howey ,
Initial Coin Offering (ICOs) ,
Investment Contract ,
New Regulations ,
Safe Harbors ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Token Sales
On November 18, 2019, the Chairman of the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”), Heath Tarbert, sat for an interview on digital assets and did something we have never seen before. He declared the winner of the...more
It is official. Finally. On October 10, 2019, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) Chairman Heath Tarbert announced that he believes ether is a commodity and thus falls under the jurisdiction of the CFTC....more
10/11/2019
/ Blockchain ,
CFTC ,
Commodities ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Derivatives ,
Digital Assets ,
Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) ,
Ether ,
Howey ,
Initial Coin Offering (ICOs) ,
Investment Contract ,
Investors ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Token Sales ,
Trading Platforms
Really? According to the website created by Tomahawk Exploration LLC (Tomahawk), in connection with its Initial Coin Offering (ICO) for its Tomahawk tokens (TOM), the ICO represented “a substantial investment opportunity . ....more
SEC Halts ICO After Finding that Tokens are Securities -
Remember in July of this year when the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said in its Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) Report that "U.S. federal...more
In the wild west of token sales, that some refer to as “initial token offerings,” on July 25, the SEC finally jumped into the fray and said . . . well, actually, not that much. The SEC investigated Slock.it, a decentralized...more
Last week we told you about the five biggest pet peeves of the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) when examining investment advisers. This week, we want to get you ready for your exam. Here are the...more
3/17/2017
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Asset Management ,
Broker-Dealer ,
Cybersecurity ,
Elder Issues ,
ETFs ,
Investment Adviser ,
Money Market Funds ,
OCIE ,
Public Pension ,
Retail Investors ,
Retirement Plan ,
SEC Examination Priorities ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
Let’s start with this caveat: as we all know, under the still-new Trump Administration, priorities may and are likely to change. Now that we got that off our chest, it is nevertheless not the time to sit back and wait. The...more