Powering Sustainable Crypto: A General Counsel’s View
From Paper to Digital: The California DMV's Leap Into Blockchain Technology — The Crypto Exchange Podcast
Dogecoin’s Day in Court
A Tale of Two Crypto Cases
Unpacking the Lummis-Gillibrand Payment Stablecoin Act: Implications for the Digital Asset Industry — The Crypto Exchange Podcast
Navigating the Regulatory Waters: The SEC's Wells Notice to Uniswap and its Impact on DeFi — The Crypto Exchange Podcast
Will Resiliency Carry the Digital Asset Sector Through 2024: Navigating the 2023 Regulatory Landscape — The Crypto Exchange Podcast
Understanding the CFPB's Proposed Digital Payments Larger Participants Rule and Its Implications for Digital Assets — The Consumer Finance Podcast
Hot Topics in International Trade-The Mod Act
What is sufficient originality for copyright? What is substantial similarity for copyright infringement? The latest artificial intelligence and intellectual property cases – authors lost contributory
Unraveling the Crypto Code: California's New DFAL Explained – The Crypto Exchange Podcast
Episode 302 -- Matt Stankiewicz on DOJ's Massive Criminal Settlement with Cryptocurrency Exchange Binance and its CEO Changpeng Zhao
The Justice Insiders Podcast: The Sam Bankman-Fried Trial: Defendants Testifying (Poorly), FOMO, and How to Actually Blame Lawyers
FINCast Ep. 38 – The Future of Crypto: A Conversation with Coinbase’s Faryar Shirzad
Analyzing the Treasury's Illicit Finance Risk Assessment of Decentralized Finance - The Crypto Exchange Podcast
Digital Planning Podcast Episode: Exploring DAOs
Current Landscape of Cryptocurrency Regulation and Enforcement - The Crypto Exchange Podcast
Current Landscape of Cryptocurrency Regulation and Enforcement - The Consumer Finance Podcast
Consumer Finance Monitor Podcast Episode: A Deep Dive Into Cryptocurrency and its Risks to Investors and the Banking System, with Arthur E. Wilmarth, George Washington University Law School
A Lawyer’s Guide to Blockchain and Cryptocurrency | Nelson Ebaugh | Texas Appellate Law Podcast
After many iterations over the years attempting to regulate the cryptocurrency space, the House of Representatives passed the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act, or FIT21 Act, on May 22, 20241. The...more
FIT21 would provide regulatory certainty for the US digital asset ecosystem, balancing support for innovation with consumer protection....more
On September 7, 2023, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced the settlement of three separate enforcement actions in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space: namely, concerning the Opyn protocol and its...more
On September 22, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) asserted its jurisdiction over a decentralized autonomous organization (“DAO”) and its founders, signaling for the industry that even an unincorporated...more
Policymakers introduced bipartisan legislation in the Senate on June 7 seeking to provide a comprehensive regulatory framework for cryptocurrency in the United States. The drafters of the legislation tout it as the first...more
Our fifth episode provides an overview of the key legal issues facing cryptocurrencies and blockchain in the U.S....more
President Franklin D. Roosevelt once noted: “The only thing to fear is fear itself ... ” Apparently, some in the federal government no longer share this belief. In a recent Investor Bulletin[2] (“Bulletin”), the Securities...more
On March 24, 2020, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the Commission or the CFTC) finalized long-awaited interpretive guidance regarding what constitutes the “actual delivery” of a digital asset in the context of...more
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has approved final interpretative guidance on retail commodity transactions involving certain digital assets, clarifying the agency's views in respect of the "actual delivery"...more
When is a digital asset a security or a commodity? Are SAFTs safe? Does hyping blockchain create an expectation of profit? Is blockchain a trademark, trade secret or neither? Are free tokens tax-free? Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?...more
Developing a framework for consumer tokens - With the rapid growth in the development of blockchain technology, virtual currencies and token sales (sometimes referred to as initial coin offerings, or ICOs), token...more
Crypto currency began with the notion of getting “off the grid” – escaping the regulators and not being regulated. Over time that notion has transmuted. Now platforms trading crypto assets proclaim that the “revolution needs...more
In remarks made at the Yahoo! All Markets Summit in New York, Heath Tarbert, Chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), said that he believed the Ether cryptocurrency was a “commodity” and should be...more
According to a recent report, the new chair of the CFTC, Heath Tarbert, has declared that he believes that ether is a commodity. He also anticipates ether futures trading on U.S. markets in the near future. The CFTC has...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
Over the past two years, prices for cryptocurrencies and other digital assets have experienced extreme gains and declines, while billions of dollars have been raised through Initial Coin Offerings (“ICOs”). In this dynamic...more
Two important events occurred in the cryptocurrency space last week. The Chairman of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) gave a speech regarding regulators’ role in effectively supervising markets in the era...more
This is the inaugural issue of The Distributed Ledger, a periodic publication covering the latest trends and developments in blockchain technology, digital assets and smart contracts. In this edition, we examine a federal...more
To no one’s surprise, the Fed followed through with its months of promises and raised its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points yesterday. The FOMC also indicated that it’s planning to raise rates again in December....more
After Bitfinex, the CFTC issued its Proposed Interpretation on “Retail Commodity Transactions Involving Virtual Currency.” Proposed Interpretation, 82 Fed. Reg. 60335 (CFTC Dec. 20, 2017). Although the comment period closed...more
Developing a framework for consumer tokens - With the rapid growth in the development of blockchain technology, virtual currencies and token sales (sometimes referred to as initial coin offerings, or ICOs) in 2017 and...more
In a series of 2015 decisions, the CFTC determined that virtual currency is a commodity subject to its jurisdiction. In a 2016 settled enforcement action, the CFTC took the position that an unregistered platform...more
The 2011 Dodd-Frank Act amended the CFTC’s jurisdiction to authorize regulation of “retail commodity transactions offered ‘on a leveraged or margined basis, or financed by the offeror, the counterparty, or a person acting in...more
With soaring cryptocurrency prices attracting significant new investment in late 2017, U.S. regulators sought to fill the statutory void by exercising jurisdiction over a variety of digital assets. That trend continued in the...more
The market for cryptocurrencies and the current wave of initial coin offerings (ICOs) that seek to raise capital for blockchain-based projects have enjoyed a swell of popularity in recent years. U.S. regulatory agencies and...more