News & Analysis as of

Enforcement Actions Howey Token Sales

King & Spalding

Meme Coins: Collectibles, Not Securities.

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On February 27, 2025, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Corporation Finance (“CorpFin”) issued a Staff Statement announcing its view that meme coin transactions do not involve the offer and sale of...more

Fenwick & West LLP

Entertainment or Investment? The SEC’s Stance on Meme Coins as Securities

Fenwick & West LLP on

On February 27, 2025, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Division of Corporation Finance (Corp Fin) published a new staff statement intended to clarify the application of federal securities laws to meme coins....more

Latham & Watkins LLP

SEC Reels in Fishy NFT Project

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In its third action involving NFTs, the SEC targets a restaurant membership token tied to fundraising and promises of potential price appreciation for buyers....more

Wiley Rein LLP

Podcast: Is Cryptocurrency a Security (like an orange grove)?

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In the first episode of the CryptoCounsel at Wiley, hosts Josh Simmons and Frank Scaduto discuss the evolving landscape of cryptocurrency regulation, focusing on recent disputes and the challenges posed by the SEC's...more

Latham & Watkins LLP

Ruling for SEC Clears Path for Continued Litigation in SEC v. Coinbase

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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

Barnea Jaffa Lande & Co.

SEC Signals Intent to Regulate NFTs

Barnea Jaffa Lande & Co. on

This past August, the US Securities and Exchange Commission took enforcement action against Impact Theory, a US media company that sold NFTs called “KeyNFTs.” It filed a second enforcement action shortly thereafter, against...more

Troutman Pepper Locke

SEC Requests Leave to Appeal in Ripple Labs

Troutman Pepper Locke on

On August 9, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sent a letter to U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres requesting leave to file an interlocutory appeal in SEC v. Ripple Labs, Inc. as to the two adverse liability...more

Holland & Knight LLP

A Ripple of Doubt

Holland & Knight LLP on

Specifically, the SEC wants a change to persuade the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit – now, not later – of its view that Torres got it wrong when she determined that the company's offer and sale of its XRP token...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

Willcox & Savage

Crypto and the SEC v. Ripple Labs, Inc. Decision: What Did the Court Actually Say?

Willcox & Savage on

Earlier this month, a federal trial court judge issued an opinion ruling on whether sales of a digital token, XRP, constituted a “security” for purposes of federal securities laws. Some headlines reporting the ruling have...more

Fenwick & West LLP

SEC v. Ripple Labs: Securities Law Analysis Under Howey Applied On A Transaction-By-Transaction Basis

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It’s the Transaction, Not the Token. Issuers cannot offer or sell securities without registering them with the SEC under Section 5 of the Securities Act of 1933 or finding a valid exemption from registration. XRP is the...more

BCLP

SEC v. Ripple Labs: A Critical Industry Win

BCLP on

Ripple Labs (“Ripple”) was one of the first companies to emerge in the crypto space and is now among the first to secure a win against the SEC. In 2020—nearly a decade after Ripple created its digital token, XRP—the SEC sued...more

Polsinelli

Shhhh! – SEC Wins Summary Judgment Over Library

Polsinelli on

While the blockchain crypto community is processing the latest round of “crypto contagion,” potentially lost in the busy news week was a significant legal development regarding what digital assets qualify as securities under...more

Proskauer - Blockchain and the Law

NFTs Are Interesting but Fractionalized Non-Fungible Tokens (F-NFTs) May Present Even More Challenging Legal Issues

Except for the extensive coverage surrounding Coinbase’s IPO last week and the volatility in the price of cryptocurrencies, much of the air in the crypto space in the last few months has been taken up by the meteoric rise of...more

Amundsen Davis LLC

Ripple Effect: SEC Lawsuit against Cryptocurrency Company May Provide Guidance For Crypto Industry

Amundsen Davis LLC on

On December 21, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a high-profile enforcement action against a major cryptocurrency company. The SEC complaint alleges violations of federal securities laws by defendant...more

Latham & Watkins LLP

The Yellow Brick Road for Consumer Tokens: The Path to SEC and CFTC Compliance - An Update

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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), token...more

McDermott Will & Emery

SEC Division of Corporate Finance Issues Second No-Action Letter for a Blockchain Token Issuance

McDermott Will & Emery on

The SEC Division of Corporate Finance recently issued a no-action letter to Pocketful of Quarters, confirming that the Division will not recommend any enforcement action if the company sells its blockchain-based tokens...more

Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP

Bridging the Weeks - July 2019 #5

A federal appellate court in California issued a decision effectively ratifying the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s expansive view of its authority to bring enforcement actions addressing a diverse range of purported...more

Proskauer - Blockchain and the Law

SEC Sues Kik for ICO

On June 4, 2019, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) filed a complaint in the Southern District of New York against Kik Interactive Inc. (“Kik”) alleging violations of Section 5 of the Securities Act of...more

McDermott Will & Emery

The SEC Takes Aim at Another Initial Coin Offering

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A recent complaint concerning KIK Interactive Inc. filed in the US District Court of the Southern District of New York reveals some SEC priorities for cryptocurrency enforcement actions. The complaint indicates that the SEC...more

Mintz

The SEC Confirms the Limited Scope and Nature of Utility Tokens

Mintz on

On April 3, 2019, Finhub, the SEC’s Strategic Hub for Innovation and Financial Technology, released the “Framework for ‘Investment Contract’ analysis of digital assets” (the “Framework”) providing principles for analyzing...more

Perkins Coie

Blockchain Week in Review - April 2019

Perkins Coie on

U.S. Developments - Regulatory Updates - SEC Releases “No-Action Letter” Stating Turnkey Jet ICO Tokens Are Not Securities and Releases “Framework for ‘Investment Contract’ Analysis of Digital Assets” - The U.S....more

McDermott Will & Emery

Blockchain Tokens: The SEC Staff Issues Its Framework for Determining Whether an ICO is an Issuance of Securities

McDermott Will & Emery on

In its long-awaited guidance, the Staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission recently provided a lengthy list of factors to consider when determining whether an initial coin offering (ICO) is a security. While the...more

Jones Day

SEC Issues Framework for Digital Assets and Grants First No-Action Relief to Token Issuer

Jones Day on

The Situation: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") issued a framework for market participants in assessing whether their digital assets-related activities involve the offer, sale, or distribution of investment...more

Proskauer - Blockchain and the Law

Gladius Escapes Fines for Unregistered ICO after Self-Reporting to the SEC

On February 20, 2019, the SEC announced that it settled charges against Gladius Network LLC (“Gladius”) for failing to register non-exempt offers and sales of securities in violation of Sections 5(a) and 5(c) of the...more

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