While the nation was preoccupied with the significant developments in the Presidential race, advocates and promoters of the blockchain ecosystem were particularly attentive to the news, given the perception that the current...more
Commissioner Uyeda spoke at the Securities and Exchange Commission’s 30th Annual Institute for Securities Market Growth and Development. Commissioner Uyeda focused on the need to root out bad actors and promote transparent...more
The Securities and Exchange Commission has confirmed that its X account “was compromised, and an unauthorized post was posted.” The SEC confirmed that it “has not approved the listing and trading of spot bitcoin...more
The Blockchain Bi-Weekly presented by the Polsinelli Blockchain+ team is a rundown of some of the key stories in the Web3, blockchain and crypto ecosystems curated by our attorneys navigating the intersections of code, smart...more
Regulators are increasingly taking enforcement action against crypto asset industry participants for violating anti-money laundering (AML) and sanctions laws. Regulators are concerned about the illicit use of crypto...more
On 15 May 2023, Law no. 52 of 10 May 2023, converting the Law Decree no. 25/2023 (DFIL) concerning the issuance and transfer of digital financial instruments into law, was published in the Italian Official Gazette and entered...more
In his famous 2018 speech, William Hinman, Digital Asset Transactions: When Howey Met Gary (Plastic), the Director of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), asked...more
FTX filed its presentation to the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors (UCC), reporting that FTX has located about $5.5 billion of cash and other liquid assets but less than $1.8 billion of digital assets identified with...more
On November 28, 2022, the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced that Payward, Inc. d/b/a Kraken, a U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange, agreed to pay $362,158.70 to settle charges relating to its...more
State-chartered crypto banking entities and other crypto financial institutions will now be subject to a "transparent and equitable framework" when applying for direct access to the Federal Reserve's payment systems...more
Two recent federal enforcement actions—announced the same day—have underlined the need for crypto companies to carefully consider their anti-money laundering (AML) obligations or else risk significant penalties....more
On June 7, 2022, U.S. Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) introduced the Lummis-Gillibrand Responsible Financial Innovation Act (the “Act”), a comprehensive legislative scheme for the regulation of...more
On January 3, 2009, the pseudonymous “Satoshi Nakamoto” mined the first bitcoin. In the years following bitcoin’s creation, the price of a single bitcoin has increased exponentially, from essentially zero to an all-time high...more
This week, Acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu gave remarks to the DC Blockchain Summit titled “Crypto: A Call to Reset and Recalibrate.” By speaking at the Blockchain Summit, Mr. Hsu may have gone into the...more
A draft report on the impact of crypto and blockchain on taxation was tabled before the European Parliament sub-committee on tax matters on 25 April 2022. The draft report consists of a motion for a European Parliament...more
In the first part of this series of articles, we examined the progress of English law to shape and build an infrastructure to support the development of a secure and certain environment for investment in digital assets. We...more
California's governor issued an executive order requiring state agencies, led by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, to create a "transparent" regulatory framework for blockchain technologies and digital...more
The Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") has renamed and expanded a unit within its Division of Enforcement to address protection of investors in crypto markets. The “Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit,” which also has...more
This article is the fifth in a multi-part series in which we explain how the SEC has structured its anti-cryptocurrency campaign, why the SEC has over-reached its regulatory authority in attacking the creators of digital...more
The battle over blockchain technology and digital assets bears a striking resemblance to the debate over the potential of the internet in the mid-1990s. Where critics see a passing fad with little actual utility or a lawless...more
The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve on January 20, 2022, published a discussion paper (the “Paper”) concerning the possibility of creating a central bank digital currency (“CBDC”). The Paper discusses the uses,...more
We’ve previously written about the push for greater regulation of digital currency and a growing number of lawsuits targeting cryptocurrency companies and their celebrity endorsers. Notwithstanding cryptocurrencies’...more
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (the Act), H.R. 3684, commonly referred to as the infrastructure bill, was signed into law by President Biden on November 15, 2021. ...more
A recent study found that 16 percent of Americans have invested in, traded or used cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ether. This widespread use, coupled with the cryptocurrency industry having limited to no regulatory...more
The Central Bank of Russia did another “shot” at the rights of cryptocurrency holders on July 19, 2021. The Bank issued an Information Letter No. IN-06-59 / 52 “On certain types of financial instruments” on this day. Now...more