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
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
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
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
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 digital asset industry has now met the regulatory state. Those interested in building digital asset businesses that operate in the United States thus need to be aware of a vital tool for resisting regulatory overreach by...more
Whether a cryptocurrency product is a security is an issue with serious regulatory consequences. In recent years, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) has taken a broad position that various crypto assets are...more
In early October, U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco announced the creation of the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (“NCET”). The NCET will handle the Department’s investigations...more
Gary Gensler, Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), attracted a lot of attention following his remarks at the Aspen Security Forum earlier this month, asking Congress for more authority “to write rules for...more
SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce continues to be one of the most vocal persons in leadership positions at federal regulators who are promoting innovation in digital currency and the blockchain....more
Many crypto entrepreneurs are seeking to build decentralized networks in which a token serves as a means of exchange on, or provides access to a function of the network. In the course of building out the network, they need...more
Presenters at the Benchmark Rates Forum from KPMG, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, NatWest Markets, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan, TD Securities, RBS, Santander, Société Générale, UBS, the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York, the...more
SEC Commissioner Hester M. Peirce was awarded the nick name “Crypto Mom” by digital asset aficionados in a previous speech encouraging forward thinking by the SEC in the regulation of tokens and initial coin offerings....more
There exists no uniformity with respect to how businesses that deal in virtual currencies (also known as "cryptocurrencies") such as Bitcoin are treated among the states....more
After allowing registration and transfer of unlisted securities through distributed ledgers in 2017 and drafting legislation for initial coin offerings (ICOs) earlier this year, France is contemplating the introduction of a...more
Technology evolves and events unfold at a dizzying pace in the blockchain world, but even by those standards this past week was tough to keep up with. Every day seemed to bring a new first for the industry...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
In a series of 2015 decisions, the CFTC determined that virtual currency is a commodity subject to its jurisdiction. In a 2016 settled enforcement action, the CFTC took the position that an unregistered platform...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
This is Part 3 of a seven-part series of posts looking at some broad legal issues affecting crypto-currencies. ...more
SEC Bars Perpetrator of Initial Coin Offering Fraud - On August 14, 2018, the SEC obtained permanent officer-and-director and penny stocks bars against David T. Laurance of Tomahawk Exploration LLC (“Tomahawk”), who...more
...Favoring cryptocurrency regulation is really something when you consider that slightly more than a decade ago in 2008, the creator of Bitcoin proposed the system for electronic transactions as one that didn’t “rely on...more
U.S. Developments - Regulatory Updates - CFTC Issues Customer Advisory Urging Public to Use Caution When Buying Virtual Currencies - On July 16, 2018, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) issued...more
As we previously have blogged, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) became one of the first regulators to wade into the regulation of cryptocurrency when it released interpretive guidance in March 2013 stating...more
A federal court this week found that the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) had jurisdiction to regulate a cryptocurrency business, raising the possibility of jurisdictional tension among the CFTC and other...more