Navigating 2025: Federal Legislative and Regulatory Updates on Stablecoins and Decentralized Finance — The Crypto Exchange Podcast
Compliance Tip of the Day: Use of Blockchain in Compliance
Unpacking the Fifth Circuit's Landmark Tornado Cash Decision — The Crypto Exchange Podcast
A Conversation with SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce
Navigating the Dark Side of Crypto: Crime, Compliance, and Consumer Protection – The Crypto Exchange Podcast
Crackdown on DeFi? An Examination of the CFTC's Enforcement Action Against Uniswap — The Crypto Exchange
Hot Topics in International Trade, Wyoming, Blockchain, Crypto, and the Current Landscape of Regulations
Ep. 11 - Crypto & Consumer Protection: Insights from a Former FTC Official
The Current State of Web3 Gaming
From Court to Code: Smart Contracts and Arbitration
Powering Sustainable Crypto: A General Counsel’s View
From Paper to Digital: The California DMV's Leap Into Blockchain Technology — The Crypto Exchange Podcast
El Salvador’s Bitcoin Nation: A Government Insider’s View
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
On May 21, Congressman Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) reintroduced the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act (BRCA), which aims to provide regulatory clarity and enhance blockchain development in the United States. Specifically, among...more
As the Polsinelli Blockchain+ team gears up for Consensus 2025 next week in Toronto — where Stephen Rutenberg, Daniel McAvoy and Jonathan Schmalfeld will be attending — the regulatory momentum in Washington appears to be...more
This periodic bulletin is designed to help companies identify important legal developments governing the use and acceptance of blockchain technology, smart contracts, and digital assets. While the use cases for blockchain...more
The Staff Statement provides clarity that Proof-of-Work crypto mining does not involve securities, reducing regulatory uncertainty and enforcement risks for miners....more
Since SEC Commissioner Mark T. Uyeda was named Acting Chairman on January 21, 2025, the SEC has significantly shifted its approach to cryptocurrency regulation and enforcement actions, including through the formation of a...more
On March 25, Stuart Alderoty, Ripple Labs’ chief legal officer, announced that Ripple intends to drop its cross-appeal against the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that is currently pending before the U.S. Court of...more
The Division of Corporation Finance (Division) of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently issued two statements regarding whether certain tokens, or arrangements involving tokens, constitute “investment...more
On March 20, the SEC released a Statement on Certain Proof-of-Work Mining Activities. In the statement, the Division of Corporation Finance (Corp Fin) provides its view that many proof-of-work mining activities are not...more
Two years ago, we wrote about a cautionary tale in which a New York federal court allowed a complaint alleging that a popular set of NFT basketball cards were “securities” to survive dismissal, rejecting the argument that,...more
Among the biggest news that dropped in the past two weeks was the Trump administration’s announcement of a national Bitcoin reserve plan, a move whose mere discussion marks a significant shift from the federal government’s...more
In welcome news, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Division of Corporation Finance (Division) recently announced “[a]s part of an effort to provide greater clarity” that meme coins do not involve the offer and...more
There is no question that the Trump Administration is taking a markedly different approach to crypto regulation compared to the Biden Administration. The turning of the tide began when the White House nominated former PayPal...more
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been moving quickly to change course on its approach to regulating digital assets. Even before President Trump issued executive order 14178, titled “Strengthening American...more
On February 27, 2025, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Corporation Finance issued a formal Staff Statement on “meme coins.” In this statement, the SEC staff took the position that typical meme...more
On February 27, 2025, the staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Corporate Finance (the “staff”) released its views on “meme coins,” stating that under certain circumstances, the offer and sale of “meme...more
On February 27, 2025, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed to dismiss its lawsuit against Coinbase, Inc. (“Coinbase”)—an outcome that marks a significant development in the evolving regulatory landscape for...more
While we anticipated a relaxed US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under the new administration, even the biggest proponents of a lax SEC did not expect a “meme coin” blessing within weeks of a new SEC chair being...more
On Feb. 20, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced the creation of the Cyber and Emerging Technologies Unit (CETU) stating its focus will be on “combatting cyber-related misconduct and to protect retail investors...more
Just over one month into the second Trump Administration, the crypto industry appears poised to notch yet another victory in its longstanding tug-of-war with regulators — perhaps its most significant to date. On February 21,...more
There have been a lot of developments at the Securities and Exchange Commission since Chair Gary Gensler resigned on January 20 during President Trump's inauguration. Most of those are groundbreaking, but the last one is just...more
Three of the SEC’s key enforcement actions—all extensively covered in BitBlog and widely seen as emblematic of the agency’s adversarial stance toward the industry—are reportedly being halted or dismissed. The SEC has agreed...more
On February 21, 2025, Commissioner Hester Peirce released a statement inviting input from interested parties on the regulation of crypto assets. Commissioner Peirce stated that greater crypto clarity requires the public’s...more
On Friday, Coinbase announced that the SEC staff had agreed in principle to dismiss its case alleging the company had failed to register as a securities exchange, broker-dealer, and clearing agency. We can expect the...more
Lowenstein Crypto advises leading digital asset and cryptocurrency projects, exchanges, and trading firms. Our practice covers regulatory advice, transactions and structuring advice, investigations, and adversarial matters...more
U.S. Digital Asset Companies Continue Product Launches, Market Expansion - U.S. nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea recently announced the launch of its new OS2 digital asset trading platform, which expands into...more