Episode 3 - The Freeman Law Project - Cryptocurrency Regulation and Taxation: A Brief Primer
This is the final article in our three-part series focused on a key question: as bank-fintech partnerships continue to play a vital role in driving financial services, how does the industry make this system safer and better?...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 an opinion post for a16z crypto, Latham lawyer Jenny Cieplak calls for a new regulatory approach for tokenized securities. A significant number of projects over the past several years have “tokenized” so-called real...more
On Feb. 4, 2025, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, in her role as head of the Commission's newly minted Crypto Task Force, provided additional detail regarding the task force's objectives. She began by managing expectations,...more
On February 4, 2025, Commissioner Hester Peirce offered a first glimpse at the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (“SEC”) roadmap for establishing a regulatory framework for crypto. Tasked with leading the SEC’s...more
The Trump Administration and the new Republican-led Congress are expected to create a friendlier governmental approach to crypto assets. Among other things, key nominees to serve as senior administration officials are known...more
A recent order handed down by U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria of the Northern District of California could be a new source of concern for digital asset entrepreneurs and the venture capital firms that invest in and support...more
A prior DAO Jungle Chronicles post here covered a 2023 federal District Court opinion from California’s Southern District holding that a complaint adequately alleged a DAO (in that case, bZx DAO) could be sued as a general...more
On September 19th, 2024, the CSSF published its 2023 annual report, highlighting key regulatory challenges, particularly in the realm of crypto-assets following the implementation of the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation...more
Crypto Firms Announce New Products in Payments, Investments, Custody - A major U.S. digital asset management company recently announced the creation and public launch of its MakerDAO Trust, which “offers investors the...more
On August 7, 2024, nearly four years after the SEC filed its complaint alleging Ripple sold XRP in unregistered securities transactions in violation of Section 5 of the Securities Act, the district court issued its final...more
As the Web3 and digital assets ecosystem continues to grow, hacks, scams and other threats remain a major cause for concern and a potential impediment to broader adoption. Data from various sources indicates that after a year...more
With so much focus on the regulatory treatment (and mistreatment) of blockchain related businesses, the benefits of commercial legal certainty for choosing a country or territory as a home of choice for these businesses is...more
Each month, we publish a roundup of the most important SEC enforcement developments for busy in-house lawyers and compliance professionals. This month, we examine: •The Supreme Court’s Jarkesy decision and its impact on the...more
Of particular importance for the crypto industry, the opinion analyzes the SEC’s allegations that Binance and BAM offered and sold various tokens and programs to investors as investment contracts without registering them with...more
On June 30, 2024, the new Markets in Crypto-assets (MiCA) regulation, which affects stablecoins in the European Union, went into effect. This client alert outlines the critical obligations and considerations for stablecoin...more
The March decision in Williams v. Binance from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit marks the latest chapter in the judiciary's struggle to apply the U.S. Supreme Court's 2010 decision in Morrison v. National...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
According to mythology, the titan Prometheus gave humans the gift of fire. As punishment, Zeus had Prometheus chained to a rock and an eagle would swoop down to eat his liver, which would then regrow overnight, for the cycle...more
In addition to tokens and crypto issuers, the SEC enforcement continued its focus on crypto lending and trading platforms. In January 2023, the SEC brought two enforcement actions against three firms for unregistered offer...more
On the one hand, the year ended where it began. The legislation on stabelecoins and market structure that would provide a regulatory framework for digital assets has still not been enacted into law. And Securities and...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
Background: On Friday November 29, 2023, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Sinbad.io (“Sinbad”), alleging that the virtual currency mixer serves as a key money-laundering...more
A new guidance creates a regulatory framework for tokenisation of retail investment products and provision of services for tokenised financial instruments. By Simon Hawkins and Adrian Fong On 2 November 2023, the Securities...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