Podcast: Is Cryptocurrency a Security (like an orange grove)?
Episode 286 -- Matt Stankiewicz on the Ripple Decision and Celsius CEO Indictment
From Station Wagon to Lamborghini: One CypherPunk’s Journey from Cryptoanarchy to Solana Cross-Chain NFT Innovations
Wax Studios
Summer Enforcement Action Review; Raising Money in a Pandemic - Investment Management Roundtable Discussion
Theoretical No More: Blockchain Technology, Cryptocurrencies and the Tax, Legal and Business Implications
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
On August 28, 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) charged Impact Theory, LLC (“Impact Theory”), a media and entertainment company headquartered in Los Angeles, with conducting an unregistered securities...more
A federal court’s dismissal of claims against a decentralized cryptocurrency platform and its investors for the actions of scam token issuers is a case of first impression with wider significance. On August 29, 2023, the...more
Specifically, the SEC wants a change to persuade the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit – now, not later – of its view that Torres got it wrong when she determined that the company's offer and sale of its XRP token...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, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York issued an important decision on a closely watched securities case surrounding crypto token classification. The primary question for the Court in...more
A bifurcated decision in a highly anticipated digital assets enforcement action may not provide the clarity that market participants want or need. On July 13, 2023, Judge Analisa Torres of the US District Court for the...more
Cryptocurrency-related filings continue to see a high level of activity. The number of securities class action filings increased in the first half of 2023, according to a report released today by Cornerstone Research and...more
In a monumental decision that will likely have substantial ramifications for crypto industry developers, securities practitioners, and millions of investors and token purchasers alike, on July 13, 2023, the U.S. District...more
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) is paying considerable attention to the world of cryptocurrency (“crypto”). According to the SEC website, the SEC has brought more than 50 enforcement actions against crypto...more
On July 13, 2023, Judge Torres of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York issued a much-awaited summary judgment decision in SEC v. Ripple Labs, Inc., No. 1:20-cv-10832-AT-SN (S.D.N.Y. July 13, 2023),...more
On July 13, 2023, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York issued its highly anticipated summary judgment decision in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) action against Ripple Labs, Inc....more
In a one-two punch earlier this month, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) brought successive actions against two of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges – the first blows in what will likely be...more
INTRODUCTION- This article is the sixth in a series that explains how the SEC has structured a campaign to suppress and eradicate cryptocurrency and digital tokens, why the SEC lacks jurisdiction over creators of...more
As of February 9, 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has accused Payward Ventures, Inc. and Payward Trading Ltd, better known as Kraken, of failing to register the sale of their cryptocurrency...more
The SEC has rung the bell again on a celebrity touting a crypto token offering without adequate disclosure of a paid role. On October 3, 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission released its order instituting cease and...more
One of the key complaints about the SEC by crypto enthusiasts is that the line between which crypto coins are securities and which are not is unclear. Many, for example, look at a coin and are puzzled – when is it a...more
On July 14, 2021 the SEC issued a consented-to Cease and Desist Order against U.K.-based cryptocurrency review website owner Blotics Ltd. (formerly doing business as Coinschedule Ltd.) for violating Section 17(a) of the...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
U.S. Developments - BitClave Settles with SEC - On May 28, 2020 the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) announced that a settlement has been reached with BitClave PTE Ltd. (“BitClave”) relating to BitClave’s 2017...more
The Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") recently won a high-profile victory when a federal court held that there is a substantial likelihood that the SEC will prevail at trial in proving that "Grams"—the digital asset...more
Hollywood martial arts sensei Steven Seagal was recently karate-chopped by the SEC for his alleged undisclosed payments for Twitter-touting a security that was being offered and sold in an initial coin offering. In a settled...more
Speaking at the International Blockchain Congress in Chicago on February 6, 2020, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce proposed a safe harbor from U.S. securities laws so that developers of blockchain protocols could offer and sell...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: On Thursday, February 6, 2020, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce proposed rules which, if certain conditions are met, would, for three years, exempt (1) the offer and sale of tokens from most provisions of the...more