Dogecoin’s Day in Court
A Tale of Two Crypto Cases
FINCast Ep. 38 – The Future of Crypto: A Conversation with Coinbase’s Faryar Shirzad
Digital Assets: The Evolving Landscape from a Regulatory, Litigation & Tax Standpoint – IMS Insights Podcast Episode 62
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
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
The last two weeks have seen federal agencies continue refining their approach to the digital asset industry, while state regulators are beginning to play a more prominent role—even as the overall pace of development appears...more
On February 27, 2025, the Securities and Exchange Commission formally abandoned its enforcement action against Coinbase. ...more
In other news from last month, we found out that Brian Quintenz was nominated by President Trump to serve as the next CFTC Chair. See our synopsis on Quintenz below. If and when Quintenz is confirmed—TBD on when the Senate...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 Jan. 21, 2025, Mark T. Uyeda, the acting chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), announced the launch of a cryptocurrency task force. This task force, led by SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, with...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
On January 13, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued a pivotal ruling, directing the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) to provide a more detailed explanation for its denial of Coinbase Global...more
For years, the crypto industry has faced regulatory uncertainty, with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) relying on “regulation by enforcement” rather than establishing specific rules for digital assets. Coinbase,...more
After two and a half years, Coinbase, Inc. (Coinbase) and other crypto market participants may finally get an answer for why the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has declined to promulgate rules clarifying how and...more
On January 13, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit ruled on Coinbase's Petition for Review of the SEC's Order denying Coinbase's Petition for Rulemaking requesting that the Commission promulgate rules...more
The ruling that the SEC acted arbitrarily in denying Coinbase's crypto rulemaking petition, issued in the waning days of the Gensler-era SEC, invites swift action under an Atkins-led SEC....more
The landscape of government enforcement, private litigation and federal and state regulation of digital assets, blockchain and related technologies is constantly evolving. Each quarter, Ropes & Gray attorneys analyze...more
The see-saw court battle over whether Coinbase is an unregistered securities exchange/broker-dealer/clearing agency has flipped, this time with the SEC dropping low. On January 7, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the...more
It’s fitting that our second October Web3 legal update arrives on Halloween, as many in the industry might find the current legal landscape for digital asset products and services quite spooky. While the past few weeks have...more
The SEC has been busy, both in bringing actions against digital industry participants and in defending against affirmative lawsuits brought against the agency regarding the lack of notice and rulemaking for digital assets...more
Anyone who thought blockchain would keep their cryptocurrency transactions private from the IRS needs to think again. According to the First Circuit’s recent holding, cryptocurrency users do not have a Fourth Amendment...more
As the end of summer approaches, litigation in the digital asset industry has remained hot. In the SEC’s cases against various exchanges, ongoing discovery fights are starting to play out in court filings, and one can expect...more
In a fascinating move, Coinbase recently added Paul Clement to its Board and publicly stated that his addition will help the company push back against the SEC. The addition of Clement, who is fresh off a victory at the...more
In this episode of the CryptoCounsel at Wiley, Josh Simmons and Frank Scaduto try their hand at acting (since Matt Damon was unavailable) to highlight the complexities of crypto regulation and the divergent opinions within...more
Our last update included a whirlwind of activities, with the surprisingly bipartisan House of Representatives vote on FIT 21 and the SEC’s approval of certain Ether spot ETF rule change proposals coming in quick succession....more
In Episode 2 of the CryptoCounsel, hosts Josh and Frank decode recent litigation with the SEC and two key cases in the Southern District of New York. In the first case, a judge found that Ripple’s cryptocurrency XRP is not a...more
On March 27, 2024, the SEC received a favorable—if at least somewhat split—decision when Judge Failla of the SDNY denied a motion by Defendants Coinbase, Inc. and Coinbase Global, Inc. (collectively, “Coinbase”) for judgment...more
The decision, which addresses a broad range of market activity by Coinbase relating to 13 third-party tokens, could have significant implications for market participants. On March 27, 2024, Judge Katherine Failla of the US...more