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Ropes & Gray LLP

SEC Crypto Roundtables Illuminate Regulatory Path for Digital Assets and Trading Platforms

Ropes & Gray LLP on

On April 10, 2025, the SEC’s newly formed Crypto Task Force held the second of its promised series of roundtables in the SEC’s “Spring Sprint Toward Crypto Clarity” initiative. Titled “Between a Block and a Hard Place:...more

Latham & Watkins LLP

SEC Staff Clarifies That Crypto Mining Does Not Implicate the Securities Laws

Latham & Watkins LLP on

The Staff Statement provides clarity that Proof-of-Work crypto mining does not involve securities, reducing regulatory uncertainty and enforcement risks for miners....more

Mayer Brown Free Writings + Perspectives

SEC Crypto Task Force & Other Crypto Developments

On March 21, 2025, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) held the inaugural roundtable of its Crypto Task Force to explore the legal issues involved in classifying crypto assets under the federal securities laws. ...more

Benesch

What the Future May Hold for Crypto Asset Litigation and Regulation

Benesch on

The Trump Administration has espoused—both on the campaign trail and in recent administrative actions—a strong interest in deregulating cryptocurrency laws and advancing the United States itself as a player in the...more

Fenwick & West LLP

SEC Statement on Crypto Mining Signals Shift Away from Securities Enforcement

Fenwick & West LLP on

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

Lowenstein Sandler LLP

SEC Greenlights Proof-of-Work Mining

Lowenstein Sandler LLP on

The Division’s statement specifically addresses the mining of crypto assets that are intrinsically linked to the programmatic functioning of a public, permissionless network. These assets, referred to by the Division as...more

Stinson - Corporate & Securities Law Blog

SEC Addresses Crypto Proof-of-Work Mining Activities

The SEC looked favorably on designated crypto mining activities by stating that such activities are not securities. Specifically, the SEC addressed “proof-of-work” activities.  According to the SEC, Proof-of-work (“PoW”) is a...more

K&L Gates LLP

SEC Provides Welcome Clarity Regarding Meme Coins

K&L Gates LLP on

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

Venable LLP

SEC Staff Says Meme Coins Are Not Securities

Venable LLP on

When meme coins—crypto tokens that usually do not purport to have any utility but are often just a single digital image of a dog, frog, or celebrity—began to be popularized, many skeptics thought that they were a joke,...more

Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP

DraftKings NFT Settlement Leaves Securities Question in Limbo

A class action lawsuit brought against online gaming company DraftKings Inc. relating to the company’s short-lived marketplace for non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, is likely to settle. Because the case will not proceed to a...more

Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP

Some Securities Stability for Stablecoins: Judge Torres Rules GYEN is not a Security

Although the U.S. Government under President Trump has flipped the script on its approach to cryptocurrency in just a matter of weeks, one big question that is still out there is will the courts chill the recent enthusiasm of...more

Seward & Kissel LLP

SEC v. Coinbase: “On to the Second Circuit We Go”

Seward & Kissel LLP on

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

Ankura

Understanding the Crypto Ripple Effect

Ankura on

On July 13, 2023, the Court ruled in partial favor of Ripple Labs Inc.’s argument that many of its XRP sales did not violate investor-protection laws. The ruling has sent the crypto world ablaze with speculation on the future...more

Farrell Fritz, P.C.

SEC’s First Two NFT Enforcement Actions Cast Shadow of Ambiguity

Farrell Fritz, P.C. on

The Securities and Exchange Commission recently brought its first two enforcement actions against issuers of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), resulting in cease-and-desist orders, penalties and other remedies, finding that the...more

Cornerstone Research

Analyzing Blockchain Transactions To Understand and Establish Fact Patterns

Cornerstone Research on

Blockchain analysis is a powerful tool that provides insight into what is happening on a blockchain network. Who is trading with whom? Which wallets are most active on decentralized finance exchanges? Which wallets are...more

Jenner & Block

Client Alert: Ripple, and Terra, and Coinbase, Oh My!

Jenner & Block on

Three federal judges in the Southern District of New York sit at the center of the long-running battle between the SEC and the crypto industry, overseeing cases that may eventually bring clarity to the industry. After two...more

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP

Judges in the Southern District of New York Divided on Whether a Token Is a Security: SEC v. Terraform Labs and SEC v. Ripple Labs

Key Point - Just shy of three weeks after Judge Torres held that the digital asset XRP is not itself a security,1 Judge Rakoff held that the SEC had adequately pled that certain digital assets, such as the UST and LUNA...more

Mayer Brown Free Writings + Perspectives

Defining Digital Asset Securities: US District Court Issues Summary Judgment Rulings in SEC v. Ripple Labs

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

Proskauer - Corporate Defense and Disputes

The Ripple Effect: Implications of the SEC’s Partial Loss in SEC v. Ripple Labs Inc.

The SEC suffered a significant loss last week in its ongoing legal battle with Ripple over the XRP digital token. While the District Court held that Ripple’s initial sales of XRP to institutional investors constituted the...more

Morrison & Foerster LLP

SDNY Issues Split Decision in SEC v Ripple Labs, Potentially Complicating Analysis of When Crypto-Tokens Will Be Treated as...

On July 13, 2023, Judge Analisa Torres in the Southern District of New York issued the much-anticipated summary judgment order in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) case against Ripple Labs and two senior leaders,...more

Proskauer Rose LLP

SEC Approach In Wahi Presents New Challenges For Crypto

Proskauer Rose LLP on

Government scrutiny of the crypto market has been sharply increasing in recent months on the criminal and civil enforcement fronts. In parallel proceedings that will be seen in other digital asset contexts — as in the...more

BakerHostetler

U.S. District Court Signals That In Certain Cases, NFTs May Qualify as Securities

BakerHostetler on

Dapper Labs was founded in 2018 shortly after the debut of its first NFT collection, “CryptoKitties,” which was so successful it created a bottleneck of transactions on the decentralized Ethereum Network. Seeking faster...more

Venable LLP

Layup or Airball? Court Holds NBA Top Shot NFTs May Be a Security in Friel v. Dapper Labs

Venable LLP on

The start of 2023 hasn’t gone much better for the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry than the end of 2022 did. In declining to dismiss a case alleging that non-fungible tokens (NFTs) called Moments are considered...more

Latham & Watkins LLP

SEC v. Ripple: Approaching Judgment Day

Latham & Watkins LLP on

While a conclusion to the much-hyped case may be approaching, market participants should be wary of doomsday prognostications. As a new year begins, the digital assets industry is still enduring a deep and widespread crypto...more

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP

Court Rules in Favor of SEC in LBRY Enforcement Action

On November 7, 2022, Judge Paul Barbadoro of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire issued an order in SEC v. LBRY, Inc., granting the SEC’s motion for summary judgment against LBRY Inc. (LBRY). The court...more

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