Episode 3 - The Freeman Law Project - Cryptocurrency Regulation and Taxation: A Brief Primer
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
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
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
A US court recently handed down a landmark ruling addressing the question of whether the crypto token XRP falls under the definition of “security”. The US court ruled that the same crypto token may be classified differently...more
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC or Commission) has been accused of “regulation by enforcement” when it comes to the standard for determining whether a crypto token is a security. Part of this stems from the fact...more
By now, nearly everyone knows that cryptocurrency is digital money and cryptocurrency transactions are recorded in secure digital ledgers known as blockchains. But that doesn't even scratch the surface of this robust...more
Regulators once again offered piecemeal guidance, while focusing on risks and enforcement. Meanwhile, innovation and institutional adoption took off. Last year, Latham & Watkins sounded a hopeful note that 2020 would provide...more
The first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, is still the most well-known application of blockchain. However, this technology has since rapidly evolved and expanded in many other areas. The initial hope with Bitcoin was to make both...more
It was a year filled with tantalizing tidbits and many loose ends. 2019 marked the 10th year since blockchain technology was released into the wild by its still unknown inventor, Satoshi Nakamoto, who mined the first bitcoin...more
Earlier this month, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) provided additional guidance on digital assets, which include “tokens” and “coins.” The SEC’s Strategic Hub for Innovation and Financial Technology (“FinHub”)...more