Podcast: Is Cryptocurrency a Security (like an orange grove)?
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
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
On Friday, January 17, 2024, President Donald J. Trump announced the launch of the $TRUMP memecoin, which was organized and sold by CIC Digital, an affiliate of the Trump Organization. Within 60 hours, $TRUMP reportedly...more
In a recent decision in SEC v. Payward, Inc. (d/b/a “Kraken”), Judge Orrick of the Northern District of California denied Kraken's motion to dismiss the SEC's suit against it. In its complaint, the SEC alleges that Kraken...more
On February 7, a Florida-based cryptocurrency company agreed to settle charges brought by the SEC and the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation alleging that, an interest-earning feature offered on the...more
Key Points - In SEC v. Terraform, the court has granted summary judgment for the SEC on its claim that the defendants offered and sold unregistered securities in the form of “crypto assets.” This comes amidst the SEC...more
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
On August 28, 2023, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged media and entertainment company, Impact Theory, LLC, with violating the Securities Act of 1933 by making an unregistered offering of securities in...more
On August 28, 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) instituted cease-and-desist proceedings under Section 8A of the Securities Act against Impact Theory, a Los Angeles media and entertainment company, alleging...more
In Short - The Situation: Recently, two judges in Southern District of New York were required to apply the Howey test in separate cases to decide whether sales of certain crypto assets were investment contracts, and thus...more
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
On July 13, 2023, a New York federal judge issued a landmark split decision in the SEC v. Ripple Labs case that takes a step toward answering one of the biggest questions in the digital asset space: whether cryptocurrency...more
Arguments presented by Coinbase in its answer to SEC charges would, if accepted, potentially deprive the SEC of its most effective tool in regulating digital assets. The SEC alleges in a Complaint in SDNY that Coinbase...more
The gloves are off. The SEC’s recent enforcement actions against leading crypto exchanges suggest that the SEC has decided that time’s up for the crypto industry as it currently exists in the United States....more
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
In a headline-grabbing action, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) announced on February 9 that it had instituted and settled an enforcement action against Kraken, a large crypto trading platform, in which it...more
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
Crypto litigation, fueled by a surge of investors and market volatility, has ballooned in recent years. For example, numerous securities class actions and government subpoenas followed the May 2022 collapse of the $60 billion...more
Over the last five years, decentralized finance (DeFi), especially cryptocurrencies and other digital assets are a space that continues to grow at an exponential rate, not only for retail investors but also for private...more
A major U.S. cryptocurrency exchange recently disclosed its receipt of a Wells Notice from the SEC, which threatened charges for violating Section 5 of the Securities Act in connection with the planned launch of a “yield...more
With offerings across a growing number of online platforms and increased trading volume, NFT issuers, promoters, and buyers should consider the legal and regulatory implications relating to NFTs and federal securities laws. ...more
Late last year, the SEC filed a litigated action in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against Ripple Labs Inc. and two of its executive officers (collectively, “Ripple”), alleging that Ripple...more
On January 4, 2021, the Chief Counsel of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency ("OCC") issued an interpretive letter ("IL 1174") on the permissibility of national banks to use independent node verification networks...more
Federal court grants summary judgment to the SEC on its claim that sales of digital tokens constitute investment contracts under the Securities Act. On September 30, 2020, U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein granted...more
On March 24, 2020, Judge P. Kevin Castel of the Southern District of New York granted the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (“SEC”) an injunction to prevent Telegram Group Inc. and TON Issuer Inc. (collectively, “Telegram”)...more