Crypto and Web3 Firms Announce Fintech Integrations - A major U.S. fintech firm recently announced a product integration with MoonPay, a Web3 infrastructure company, “that allows MoonPay users in the U.S. to seamlessly buy...more
Who may be interested: Investment Advisers, Registered Investment Companies - The SEC approved the creation and listing of eleven spot Bitcoin ETFs on January 10th. Several firms received approval to launch funds,...more
The U.S. government’s criminal and civil actions against Samuel Bankman-Fried (“SBF”) reveal a novel coordination and collaboration among three government agencies and use of various jurisdictional bases and anti-fraud...more
Payments Firms Launch Crypto Products, New DeFi Price Indices Announced - A U.S. fintech company recently announced the launch of a fiat-to-crypto on-ramp, which facilitates fiat-to-crypto payments using “a customizable...more
Since at least 2016 the IRS has been ferreting out taxpayers who failed to report their taxable gains from cryptocurrency transactions by issuing John Doe summonses to crypto exchanges and dealers. A John Doe summons enables...more
In last week's Cabinet News and Views, we examined the U.S. regulators' approach to the digital asset space, with a focus on the assertion of jurisdiction by the CFTC, the SEC, prudential regulators, state executive and...more
On June 29, 2022, Grayscale Investments, LLC petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia for review of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s June 29, 2022 final order disapproving of an October...more
Key Takeaways - According to sources with firsthand knowledge, the SEC is conducting an industry-wide inquiry into alleged insider trading activities of cryptocurrency exchanges. Insider trading occurs when a corporate...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
CROSS-PRACTICE TEAM RECOVERS $6 MILLION FROM BITCOIN THIEF IN SHORT ORDER - The Challenge: In the emerging cryptocurrency space, most investors store their assets in digital wallets, where—unlike traditional bank...more
Despite the confusing interpretations by US regulators, non-compliance with crypto tax rules can cost taxpayers dearly. Unfortunately, the answer to “how is virtual currency taxed” depends on who you ask....more
THE CHALLENGE: In the emerging cryptocurrency space, most investors store their assets in digital wallets, where—unlike traditional bank accounts—they earn no interest. In the last few years, cryptocurrency investors have...more
On Friday March 12, Bloomberg News reported that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) has opened an inquiry into Binance Holdings Ltd. (“Binance”) to investigate allegations that the exchange allowed US citizens...more
Another day, another new Google antitrust lawsuit—this time thanks to a group of 30-plus states that have accused the company of “illegally arranging its search results to push out smaller rivals.” Oh, and money likely won’t...more
BitMEX, a Seychelles-based centralized exchange for trading derivatives on bitcoin, ether and litecoin, and certain of its executives have been charged with a number of violations under the U.S. Commodity Exchange Act (CEA),...more
John Louis Anthony Bigatton will not be providing financial services in Australia and likely not anywhere else, anytime soon. On Thursday, September 3, 2020, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (“ASIC”)...more
With bitcoin prices rocketing nearly 300% from trough to peak when COVID-19 lockdowns were announced in March 2020 and then relaxed in July 2020, I thought I would revisit a blockchain company we discussed earlier last year...more
The Regulation of Retail Commodity Transactions—History and Background - On March 24, 2020, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the Commission or the CFTC) finalized long-awaited interpretive guidance regarding...more
On March 24, 2020, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the Commission or the CFTC) finalized long-awaited interpretive guidance regarding what constitutes the “actual delivery” of a digital asset in the context of...more
Once purely theoretical, “majority” or “51%” attacks on public blockchains have dealt participants a reality check: The fundamental assumption of Satoshi Nakamoto’s 2008 Bitcoin whitepaper (that computing power will remain...more
The European Central Bank has published a paper providing an overview of the stablecoins market and looking ahead to its future development. The paper contains no binding rules or guidance and is designed for information...more
A Hong Kong court has granted an injunction freezing the assets of a French cryptocurrency trader in a dispute over what happened to bitcoins held in an insolvent trading platform. In Nico Constantijn Antonius Samara v Stive...more
The SEC Division of Enforcement’s 2019 Annual Report, released earlier this month, shows a continuing focus on activities involving blockchain and cryptocurrency, and its website shows an increase in cases since last fiscal...more
The US has blacklisted 28 Chinese companies—mostly in the tech sector—over China’s “campaign targeting Uighurs and other predominantly Muslim minorities in the autonomous region of Xingjiang,” a move that’s drawn both...more
On June 26, the price of bitcoin surged to a 12-month high of nearly $13,900 (up about 35% on the month) before losing more than $1,700 in a span of 15 minutes, then rebounding slightly and closing the day at around $12,800....more