Podcast: Is Cryptocurrency a Security (like an orange grove)?
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 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
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
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
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
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
In a recent and highly anticipated decision, a court in the Southern District of New York held that Ripple’s cryptocurrency token – XRP – is not inherently a security. In a setback to the SEC, the court also held that...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
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
Three days before Christmas 2020, the SEC served Ripple Labs Inc. and two of its executives with a lawsuit. How is that for a present under the tree? As the SKrypto Blog reported at the time, the main issue was whether XRP, a...more
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
In a long-awaited decision in SEC v. Ripple Labs, Inc., U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres of the Southern District of New York held that Ripple Labs, Inc.’s (Ripple) XRP token is not, in and of itself, a security requiring...more
On November 7, 2022, Judge Paul J. Barbadoro in the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire granted summary judgment in favor of the Securities and Exchange Commission against the content sharing...more
Background: Crypto Catch 22 - Followers of the SEC’s efforts to regulate digital tokens will recall former SEC Corp Fin Director William Hinman’s speech at the June 14, 2018 Yahoo Finance Conference in which he introduced...more
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
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
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
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
In a closely-watched cryptocurrency case, on September 30, the Southern District of New York ruled in favor of the SEC in SEC v. Kik Interactive, Inc., holding that the Kin tokens Kik had offered and sold through a pre-sale...more
On September 30, 2020, SDNY Judge Alvin Hellerstein issued a decision of major significance for the digital token industry in Securities and Exchange Commission v. Kik Interactive, Inc. This is only the second federal court...more
The Southern District of New York granted the SEC’s request for a preliminary injunction halting a coin offering in Securities and Exchange Commission v. Telegram Group Inc. et al....more
Recent SEC guidance on digital assets cleared a path for at least certain stable coins or payment tokens to avoid securities regulation. However, Latham & Watkins attorneys say there are still a number of open questions that...more
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
It is official. Finally. On October 10, 2019, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) Chairman Heath Tarbert announced that he believes ether is a commodity and thus falls under the jurisdiction of the CFTC....more
This white paper discusses considerations related to conducting a token offering under Regulation A under the Securities Act of 1933 (the “Securities Act”). The benefit of this strategy is that it can allow broad...more