Crypto & Politics: Insights from Former Congressman David McIntosh
Podcast - Cracking Down on Carbon Markets: CFTC and FTC Exercise Heightened Scrutiny
How Technology Has Transformed Today’s Agriculture Commodities Market
Risky Business: Effective Commodity Risk Management
A Discussion on Environmental Commodities with Bill Flederbach, President and CEO at ClimeCo
JONES DAY TALKS®: CFTC and DOJ Target Derivatives Trading Across Industries
A Look Ahead at the Biden Administration’s Regulatory and Enforcement Priorities
Path Forward: Borrowing Base Redeterminations In A Restructuring World
Episode 3 - The Freeman Law Project - Cryptocurrency Regulation and Taxation: A Brief Primer
Regulation 2013: Dodd-Frank Position Limits, CFTC Reuthorization, Regulatory Harmonization
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has taken a significant step in its oversight of the voluntary carbon markets with a recent enforcement action against defendants who misappropriated funds through a carbon...more
In a victory for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), a federal court has granted summary judgment in favor of the agency in its case against Sam Ikkurty and his company Ikkurty Capital LLC. The ruling, issued by...more
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
On March 26, 2024, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) filed a complaint (the “Complaint”) in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (“SDNY”) for injunctive and other relief against...more
On December 14, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Freepoint Commodities LLC, a Connecticut-based commodities trader, had agreed to a three-year deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) to resolve a DOJ investigation...more
Combined, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have awarded more than $2 billion to whistleblowers. The agencies’ whistleblower programs, which were created...more
There should be a short answer to the question of which whistleblower program applies in which situation. And sometimes there is; but not always. Securities (like stocks) are regulated by the SEC (Securities and Exchange...more
On August 10, 2021, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced that the US District Court for the Southern District of New York entered a consent order against HDR Global Trading Limited, 100x Holding Limited,...more
Some virtual currency units and positions are treated as commodities by the CFTC and US courts. The IRS has told taxpayers that it views convertible virtual currency as property, not foreign currency, for federal tax...more
In the wake of significant market discussion, the CFTC has proposed an amendment to Part 37 of the Commission’s regulations to eliminate the practice of “post-trade name give-up” for swaps traded on certain swap execution...more
Strikeout for Bitcoin ETF - Another ETF bites the dust. On February 26th the SEC rejected the application of NYSE Acre for the approval of an exchange traded fund sponsored by the New York firm of Wilshire Phoenix to...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
Over the past several years, a number of transactions in the credit default swap (CDS) market have been scrutinized by the public, market participants and regulators. These transactions — which we have labeled as...more
Oil jumped for a second straight day, with futures near $70/barrel as fallout from the U.S.’s drone-strike assassination of Iran’s Qassem Soleimani continues to raise “the prospect of disruptions in the world’s most important...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
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
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) obtained an important court win and boost to its regulatory authority over Cryptocurrencies this month. A federal district court in Massachusetts recently issued a decision in...more
Recently, a United States District Court in Massachusetts ruled in favor of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) argument that a virtual currency (My Big Coin or MBC) is a “commodity” within the meaning of the...more
• The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) staff made official statements regarding when a token may or may no longer be a security • The SEC continued to bring actions related to cryptocurrency offerings against...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
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
The regulatory landscape surrounding cryptocurrency continues to evolve. Most of the activity to date has involved regulatory enforcement actions brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and Commodity Futures...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