Stablecoin, Wallet Products Launch; German Bank Launches Crypto Services - Circle, a global fintech firm and issuer of the USDC stablecoin, has announced new smart contract functionality to allow holders of BUIDL, a...more
The Mexican Congress has approved a bill regarding promissory notes, negotiable instruments and other financial transactions using electronic means. On March 26, 2024, a decree was published in the Official Journal of the...more
In 2023, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) reversed examiners’ decisions in about 30% of appeals, and only in about 7% of appeals related to patent applications for business methods, which include financial technology...more
The European Securities and Markets Authority has published two consultation papers on proposed guidelines under the EU Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation, one on reverse solicitation and the other on the classification of...more
While the blockchain universe continues to expand, the direction and pace of its development will continue to be influenced by a number of variables – including financial markets, regulatory environments and politics. While...more
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) published its annual Risk Review this past Monday, providing an overview of banking conditions for 2022 through early 2023. The FDIC started providing Risk Reviews to the...more
Law Decree implementing EU Regulation 2022/858, containing urgent provisions on issuance and circulation of financial instruments in digital form, was published in the Official Gazette on 17 March 2023. It provides for the...more
The U.K. government has published its much-anticipated proposals for regulating the cryptoasset industry. These proposals, currently in the form of a consultation, will see many (but not all) cryptoasset-related activities...more
Innovate Finance and Shearman & Sterling has submitted a comprehensive evidence paper to the House of Commons Treasury Committee inquiry into crypto-assets. Analysis produced by Innovate Finance specially for the...more
On June 7, 2022, the Government of Alberta published Order in Council 200/2022, under which the Lieutenant Governor in Council ordered that the Financial Innovation Act, SA 2022 c F-13 (FIA) be proclaimed into force on July...more
The battle over blockchain technology and digital assets bears a striking resemblance to the debate over the potential of the internet in the mid-1990s. Where critics see a passing fad with little actual utility or a lawless...more
On 19 January 2022, the UK Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) published a consultation paper (CP22/2) (the “Consultation”) setting out its proposals to strengthen its financial promotion rules for high-risk investments...more
The interagency "policy sprints" are designed to give banks guidance on how to navigate crypto-assets moving forward. On November 23, 2021, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Federal Deposit Insurance...more
In Mary Poppins the magical nanny tells the children in her charge that “a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.” In the spirit of helping the medicine of regulation go down, the FSB has published for consultation 10...more
Many crypto entrepreneurs are seeking to build decentralized networks in which a token serves as a means of exchange on, or provides access to a function of the network. In the course of building out the network, they need...more
The EU legislative bodies have announced that political agreement has been reached on the proposed Regulation on European Crowdfunding Service Providers for Business. The proposed ECSP Regulation is part of the EU Capital...more
New York regulators continued an aggressive approach against certain entities engaged in virtual currency businesses when the state's Attorney General’s office obtained an ex parte order precluding companies associated with a...more
Partners Julia Smithers Excell and Stuart Willey, and associate Laura Kitchen of global law firm White & Case take a deep dive on the latest publications from EU and UK regulators aimed at providing supervisory clarity on the...more
The notion of distributed ledger (formally denominated “shared electronic recording system, or DEEP in French) was first introduced to French law in 2016 by Ordinance No. 2016-520 of April 28, 2016 (the “Minibon...more
Below is a summary of some of the significant legal and regulatory actions that occurred over the past week. This alert is not intended to be a comprehensive list of all such developments, but rather a selection of...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