On November 20, 2023, the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) issued an invitation for comments on a potential rulemaking relating to two new California laws that will impose sweeping...more
On October 13, 2023, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed two bills into law that will impose sweeping obligations on companies engaged in virtual currency activities in California and with California residents. Newsom vetoed...more
On July 13, 2023, US District Judge Analisa Torres of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled that Ripple Labs’ token, XRP, was a security when sold to institutional investors and not a security when...more
A new rule amending Alaska’s money transmission regulations expands the scope of money transmission activity subject to regulation to include virtual currency. As a result, effective January 1, 2023, companies engaged in...more
In August 2020, Louisiana adopted the Virtual Currency Businesses Act (VCBA) to regulate virtual currency activity in the state. In doing so, it joined New York as only the second US state to establish a stand-alone payments...more
On June 1, 2022, the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) released an invitation for public comments to inform its development of a comprehensive regulatory approach for digital (or crypto1)...more
On November 1, 2021, the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (together, the “Agencies”) released a report on...more
On December 22, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a complaint in the Southern District of New York (SDNY) against Ripple Labs, Inc., and Ripple executives Bradley Garlinghouse and Christian A. Larsen in their...more
A way out of the ‘regulatory Catch-22’ for launching distributed networks?
In a February 6 speech at the International Blockchain Congress in Chicago, Securities and Exchange Commission Commissioner Hester Peirce...more
On October 9, 2019, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released Revenue Ruling 2019-24, which addresses the US federal income tax treatment of two unsettled areas of tax law regarding “hard forks” and “airdrops” of...more
On April 3, the SEC Division of Corporation Finance released a No Action Letter and a suggested framework for applying the investment contract analysis to tokens and digital assets....more
On March 27, 2018, Massachusetts' top securities regulator – the Massachusetts Securities Division (the Division) – propelled itself to the forefront of the ongoing debate about whether "initial coin offerings" (ICOs) should...more