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
For the past several years, many have viewed “SEC v. Ripple” as one of the defining conflicts in the US crypto regulatory landscape. At the heart of this dispute is the question of whether digital tokens are “securities” for...more
The Digital Asset Market Structure “(DAMS”) discussion draft bill attempts to provide regulatory clarity on crucial blockchain industry issues. These issues include when a blockchain is legally considered decentralized, the...more
This article is the fifth in a multi-part series in which we explain how the SEC has structured its anti-cryptocurrency campaign, why the SEC has over-reached its regulatory authority in attacking the creators of digital...more
On April 16, 2021, in In re Bibox Group Holdings Ltd. Securities Litigation, Judge Denise Cote of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed a putative class action alleging registration...more
On September 30, 2019, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced that blockchain developer Block.one had agreed to pay a $24 million fine to settle charges that it had engaged in an unregistered offering of securities...more
After allowing registration and transfer of unlisted securities through distributed ledgers in 2017 and drafting legislation for initial coin offerings (ICOs) earlier this year, France is contemplating the introduction of a...more
Technology evolves and events unfold at a dizzying pace in the blockchain world, but even by those standards this past week was tough to keep up with. Every day seemed to bring a new first for the industry...more
U.S. Judge Says Initial Coin Offerings May Be Covered by Securities Law - On September 11, U.S. District Judge Raymond Dearie ruled that U.S. securities laws may cover an initial coin offering and stated that a reasonable...more
The Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) has taken to using humor and sarcasm to educate retail investors about the potential risks of purchasing tokens in initial coin offerings (“ICOs”)....more
Escalating its regulatory scrutiny of initial coin offerings (“ICOs”), the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) has recently issued subpoenas to a reported 80 or more firms involved in the burgeoning industry...more
I am always amazed at how “business” entrepreneurs ignore enforcement risks in the face of specific warnings from regulators. The SEC and the CFTC have made it clear to the emerging initial coin offering (ICO) and...more
On December 4, the SEC’s new Cyber Unit announced it obtained an emergency asset freeze to halt the initial coin offering (“ICO”) of PlexCoin. According to the SEC, the Plexcoin ICO had raised up to $15 million to date...more
One week after filing a fraud suit against the organizer of the PlexCoin token sale, the SEC issued an enforcement order in connection with a token offering by Munchee and a public statement that shed some additional light on...more
In his recent remarks at the Securities Regulation Institute, SEC Chairman Jay Clayton had some stern words for market professionals, especially lawyers, involved in initial coin offerings (ICOs). He expressed concern that...more
SEC Chair Clayton delivered the following remarks at a conference of securities professionals: “My first message is simple and a bit stern. Market professionals, especially gatekeepers, need to act responsibly and hold...more
As reported in the most recent issue of Expect Focus, the SEC issued an investigative report in July cautioning market participants that distributed ledger (blockchain) technology-based offers and sales of digital "tokens" or...more
December 11, 2017 was a day of reckoning for entrepreneurs conducting or contemplating initial coin offerings, and for securities professionals who advise them. ...more
Munchee Inc., a California-based company selling digital tokens to investors to raise capital for its blockchain-based food review service halted its initial coin offering (ICO) after being contacted by the SEC. Munchee Inc....more
On October 17, 2017, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) newly formed financial technology (fintech) innovation group, LabCFTC, released its first fintech primer, “A CFTC Primer on Virtual Currencies” (VC...more
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has now made it clear that, in its view, certain initial coin offerings (ICOs) within the United States or affecting U.S. residents may be within its jurisdiction. On October...more
Ending months of speculation about when regulators would wade into the world of Bitcoin and other digital currencies, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) recently brought its first enforcement actions against...more
On Friday, September 29, the SEC filed an emergency action in Federal District Court in New York against Maksim Zaslavskiy and two of his companies, REcoin Group and Diamond Reserve Club. ...more
Two initial coin offerings (ICOs) were the target of a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) enforcement action filed on September 29. Based on the SEC’s descriptions, both ICOs, on their face, appear to be frauds, with...more
First, it was digital currencies like bitcoin. Then, it was distributed ledger technologies like blockchain. Now, another potentially groundbreaking innovation from this same community of technologists has vaulted to the...more
As discussed in a post from last week, the SEC determined that Initial Coin Offerings can be securities. The finding stems from the SEC’s investigation into The DAO’s offering and sale of DAO Tokens (a form of virtual...more