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 October 8, 2024, a crypto exchange (the “Exchange”) sued the Securities Exchange Commission (“SEC”), the Chair of the SEC Gary Gensler, and four SEC Commissioners, challenging the SEC’s jurisdiction over the secondary sale...more
On 1 September 2024, the Qatar Financial Centre (QFC), Qatar’s onshore business and financial centre, published its new Digital Asset Regulations 2024 and accompanying laws, rules and guidelines (the DA Regime). The DA...more
Crypto Firms Announce New Products in Payments, Investments, Custody - A major U.S. digital asset management company recently announced the creation and public launch of its MakerDAO Trust, which “offers investors the...more
As the end of summer approaches, litigation in the digital asset industry has remained hot. In the SEC’s cases against various exchanges, ongoing discovery fights are starting to play out in court filings, and one can expect...more
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 7, 2024, a digital asset infrastructure company (the “Company”) was ordered to pay a $125 million civil penalty for its failure to register institutional sales of its XRP token with the Securities and Exchange...more
Crypto Offerings Launch by Major Investment Bank, Asset Manager and Insurer - According to a recent report, a major multinational investment bank and financial services firm is now allowing its investment advisors to pitch...more
Our last update included a whirlwind of activities, with the surprisingly bipartisan House of Representatives vote on FIT 21 and the SEC’s approval of certain Ether spot ETF rule change proposals coming in quick succession....more
In the first episode of the CryptoCounsel at Wiley, hosts Josh Simmons and Frank Scaduto discuss the evolving landscape of cryptocurrency regulation, focusing on recent disputes and the challenges posed by the SEC's...more
The decision, which addresses a broad range of market activity by Coinbase relating to 13 third-party tokens, could have significant implications for market participants. On March 27, 2024, Judge Katherine Failla of the US...more
Regulator sets out its expectations for banks looking to provide digital asset custody services, and sell and distribute tokenised products. On 20 February 2024, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) published two...more
Major Banks and Technology Firms Launch Stablecoin and Custody Products - According to recent reports, a major European bank has launched its own stablecoin, “becoming the first big bank to offer digital tokens tracking...more
The Consumer & Retail Industry has been an early champion of the benefits of Web 3 concepts like NFTs (non-fungible tokens) and the metaverse, helping retailers to drive sales and growth and supercharge brand awareness. NFTs...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 September 7, 2023, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced the settlement of three separate enforcement actions in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space: namely, concerning the Opyn protocol and its...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
In the latest decision evaluating the application of federal securities laws to the digital asset context, Judge Jed S. Rakoff of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (“SDNY”) ruled in favor...more
Matt Stankiewicz, Partner at The Volkov Law Group, rejoins the podcast to review the recent Ripple decision by District Judge Torres at the Southern District of New York and the recent indictment of Celsius Networks' CEO. On...more
Blockchain analysis is a powerful tool that provides insight into what is happening on a blockchain network. Who is trading with whom? Which wallets are most active on decentralized finance exchanges? Which wallets are...more
U.S. Fintech Firm Launches Stablecoin; Circle Launches ‘Programmable Wallets’ - A major U.S. fintech and payments firm recently announced the launch of a U.S. dollar-denominated stablecoin, PYUSD. According to a press...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
Federal District Court Enters Default Judgment Based on NFT Service of Process - A federal district court judge in Florida entered a $2.2 million default judgment against a defendant on whom the judge previously authorized...more
A US court recently handed down a landmark ruling addressing the question of whether the crypto token XRP falls under the definition of “security”. The US court ruled that the same crypto token may be classified differently...more
Key Point - Just shy of three weeks after Judge Torres held that the digital asset XRP is not itself a security,1 Judge Rakoff held that the SEC had adequately pled that certain digital assets, such as the UST and LUNA...more