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
Commissioner Uyeda spoke at the Securities and Exchange Commission’s 30th Annual Institute for Securities Market Growth and Development. Commissioner Uyeda focused on the need to root out bad actors and promote transparent...more
The world of cryptocurrencies on blockchains and the world of traditional assets in markets have often stood in stark contrast to one another since Bitcoin’s creation in 2008. The lack of a reliable bridge between these two...more
The Proposed Guidance would require enhanced criteria for coin-listing and delisting procedures for New York-licensed virtual currency entities. On September 18, 2023, the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS)...more
The Blockchain Bi-Weekly presented by the Polsinelli Blockchain+ team is a rundown of some of the key stories in the Web3, blockchain and crypto ecosystems curated by our attorneys navigating the intersections of code, smart...more
On July 31, 2023, the IRS issued Revenue Ruling 2023-14, which sets forth the IRS’s position as to when certain staking “rewards” are taxable income. The Ruling analyzes a fact pattern where a cash method taxpayer “stakes...more
On July 13, 2022, Judge Analisa Torres issued her long awaited ruling on the summary judgment motions in the SEC’s case against Ripple Labs, Inc. (“Ripple”). The 34-page order provided a win for both the SEC and for Ripple...more
As of June 6, the SEC has brought 24 cryptocurrency enforcement actions between litigations and administrative proceedings. The number of cryptocurrency enforcement actions brought by the SEC in 2023 is advancing at a record...more
CryptoLink is a compilation of news stories published by outside organizations. Akin aggregates these stories, but the information contained in them does not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of the firm. Akin's...more
Key developments of interest over the last two months include: the UK PSR publishing a policy statement on its new reimbursement requirement to fight APP fraud; the Australian government confirming its strategic plan for the...more
The Digital Asset SEC Timeline serves as an interactive compilation of select SEC guidance, enforcement actions, and speeches relating to the application of the federal securities laws to digital assets. Beginning with the...more
Last week’s wild ride in the crypto-verse started, of all places, in New Hampshire. On Monday, a federal judge ruled that LBRY Credits (“LBC”) are securities, and thus LBRY violated Section 5 of the Securities Act of 1933 by...more
Cryptocurrency had a market cap of $10 million in early 2011; it rocketed to nearly $3 trillion in February 2022 and is now down to about $1.1 trillion today. Some of this year's more notable gyrations in crypto's fall from...more
In this episode of Crypto Innovators, co-hosts Eric Swartz, senior counsel and Vice Chair of Lowenstein Crypto, and Leah Satlin, counsel in Lowenstein’s Tech Group, talk to self-described CypherPunk Zach Silva, head of...more
Cryptocurrency companies face a steadily growing number of lawsuits, adding to a list of recent headaches for their industry. That list includes steep recent declines in investment value and a high probability of new...more
Roadmap - As a starting point it is helpful to outline a roadmap of how a new blockchain based project might develop. It is important to stress that no two projects will ever have the same objectives. As such, there is no...more
How Indonesia’s regulatory framework is handling Crypto assets. Every business involved with crypto assets in the Indonesia market should be aware of regulatory and policy changes by the Indonesian regulators – the...more
It’s very hard to keep up with digital and crypto lingo. But if you are dabbling in crypto, you need to know about rug pulls. What is a rug pull you ask? According to blogger Migi Delfin, “A rug pull is a fraud scheme that...more
We highlighted in a recent post regulators’ clear intentions to bring greater order to the cryptocurrency industry this year. The last three weeks have demonstrated that private litigants are not waiting on regulators to rein...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
The People’s Bank of China (“PBOC”) announced this morning that it is banning crypto currencies and related services, including “trading, order matching, token issuance and derivatives for virtual currencies are strictly...more
On Sept. 14, Gary Gensler, chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, testified before the Senate Banking Committee that the agency has authority using the existing, “broad” definition of a “security” to regulate the...more
On August 3, 2021, Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) Chair Gary Gensler made headlines when he dubbed the current cryptocurrency landscape the “Wild West.” Though attention-grabbing, these remarks are not isolated,...more
U.S. Developments - Legislation - Congress Members Reintroduce Bill to Define Digital Assets - U.S. Representative Tom Emmer (MN-06) re-introduced legislation aimed at defining how regulators should classify and...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