Videocast: Asset management regulation in 2020 videocast series – FinTech initiatives
Enforcement during Gensler administration was considerably higher than during the previous administration. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) brought 33 cryptocurrency-related enforcement actions in 2024, the...more
Stablecoin Initiatives Announced by Fintech Companies, DeFi Protocols - Major U.S. payments firm recently announced plans to enable “disbursement partners” to use the PYUSD stablecoin to settle cross-border money...more
With the world slowly coming out of the COVID-19 lock down and the economy hopefully on the path to recovery there have been many developments in the blockchain / crypto space over the last few weeks....more
Digital assets and Blockchain technologies which were once described as the tools of criminals, are now a key part of efforts by traditional financial services firms to transform their businesses and innovative firms looking...more
A social media company and its wholly owned subsidiary sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission for conducting an offering of an unregistered digital security claimed that the agency was wrong in its characterization of...more
U.S. Developments - SEC Sues Social Media Company Kik over Digital Coin Offering - The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) sued Kik Interactive Inc. (“Kik”) in federal court in Manhattan this week, arguing that...more
Last week, a Canada-based social media company was sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission for purportedly conducting an unregistered securities offering to United States persons in connection with an initial coin...more
The US Department of Justice vehemently opposed the request for a new trial by the first person charged, convicted and sentenced under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act’s prohibition against...more
In 2018, the number of blockchain-enabled projects increased sharply as established companies sought to apply distributed ledger technology to their existing business models and startups developed new and disruptive models...more
Two United States congressmen introduced legislation in late December that would exclude certain digital currencies from being defined as securities – a bill that, if enacted, may finally provide the cryptocurrency industry...more
Smart contracts, also referred to as chaincode in the Hyperledger world, are one of the most powerful aspects of blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT). This “self-executing” code can receive various inputs and,...more
• The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) staff made official statements regarding when a token may or may no longer be a security • The SEC continued to bring actions related to cryptocurrency offerings against...more
The market for cryptocurrencies and the current wave of initial coin offerings (ICOs) that seek to raise capital for blockchain-based projects have enjoyed a swell of popularity in recent years. U.S. regulatory agencies and...more
Last week, former CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler explained in remarks at M.I.T. that he believes the second and third most widely used virtual currencies—Ether and Ripple—may have been issued and traded in violation of securities...more
Last month, SEC chairman Jay Clayton and CFTC chairman Christopher Giancarlo testified before the Senate Banking Committee on their agencies’ regulatory efforts with respect to cryptoassets and ICOs. The written testimonies...more
J. Christopher Giancarlo, Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, laid out his priorities for the remainder of 2018 in a speech before the FIA at its annual conference last week. Unrelatedly, the Securities and...more
On March 7, 2018, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued additional guidance with respect to digital assets trading platforms, affirming that platforms that offer trading of cryptocurrencies that are...more
Initial Coin Offerings, or ICOs, were an extremely popular way of raising capital in exchange for crypto tokens in 2017 and have led to class action litigation in 2017 and 2018. While ICOs have been around since 2013, they...more
As reported in the most recent issue of Expect Focus, the SEC issued an investigative report in July cautioning market participants that distributed ledger (blockchain) technology-based offers and sales of digital "tokens" or...more
On October 17, 2017, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) newly formed financial technology (fintech) innovation group, LabCFTC, released its first fintech primer, “A CFTC Primer on Virtual Currencies” (VC...more
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s LabCFTC recently released, “A CFTC Primer on Virtual Currencies.” This primer provides an overview of virtual currencies and their potential use-cases, helps outline the CFTC’s role...more
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has now made it clear that, in its view, certain initial coin offerings (ICOs) within the United States or affecting U.S. residents may be within its jurisdiction. On October...more