The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (the “Court”) issued a major ruling against the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on August 29, 2023, holding that the SEC acted arbitrarily and capriciously when it...more
The International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT) has adopted draft Principles on Digital Assets and Private Law (the “Principles”). These Principles comprise legislative guidance and best practices in...more
Over the last six months, artificial intelligence (AI) has captured the public imagination in a way it never has before. A new generation of AI-powered language models make use of a deep learning architecture known as a...more
4/27/2023
/ Artificial Intelligence ,
Banking Sector ,
Broker-Dealer ,
CFTC ,
Cybersecurity ,
Due Diligence ,
ECOA ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) ,
Financial Institutions ,
Investment Adviser ,
Lending ,
Popular ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Software
In response to President Biden’s March 9, 2022 Executive Order on digital assets, the DOJ announced the formation of a new network of prosecutors tasked with becoming specialists in investigating and prosecuting alleged...more
9/22/2022
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Biden Administration ,
CFTC ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Digital Assets ,
Digital Currency ,
Enforcement ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Financial Institutions ,
Penalties ,
Popular ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Stablecoins ,
Statute of Limitations
Key Takeaways - The federal government has the cryptocurrency market in its crosshairs. Specifically, the DOJ, SEC and CFTC have all continued to make announcements and show interest in regulating cryptocurrency and enforcing...more
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission published in the Federal Register on June 24, 2020 its final interpretive guidance concerning retail commodity transactions involving certain digital assets (2020 Guidance).1 The 2020...more
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading...more
7/21/2020
/ Amended Regulation ,
CFTC ,
Covered Funds ,
Credit Funds ,
Exclusions ,
FDIC ,
Federal Reserve ,
Financial Regulatory Agencies ,
Foreign Excluded Funds ,
Investment Schemes ,
OCC ,
Ownership Interest ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securitization ,
Venture Capital ,
Volcker Rule ,
Wealth Management
Over the past two years, prices for cryptocurrencies and other digital assets have experienced extreme gains and declines, while billions of dollars have been raised through Initial Coin Offerings (“ICOs”). In this dynamic...more
2/1/2019
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Blockchain ,
CFTC ,
Civil Monetary Penalty ,
Commodities ,
Criminal Investigations ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Digital Assets ,
Disgorgement ,
Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Entrepreneurs ,
Financial Regulatory Agencies ,
FinCEN ,
FinHub ,
Fraud ,
Initial Coin Offering (ICOs) ,
Investors ,
Misleading Statements ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Popular ,
Risk Management ,
Risk Mitigation ,
Sanction Violations ,
SDN List ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Tokens ,
Startups ,
State Regulators ,
Token Sales ,
U.S. Treasury ,
Unregistered Securities ,
Utility Tokens
For years, regulators around the world have struggled with whether and how to police the offering and exchange of digital assets (including virtual currencies such as Bitcoin). In the United States, such efforts were stymied...more
12/17/2018
/ Bitcoin ,
Blockchain ,
Blocked Person ,
CFTC ,
Compliance ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Economic Sanctions ,
FinCEN ,
Initial Coin Offering (ICOs) ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Risk Assessment ,
SDN List ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Virtual Currency
The National Futures Association (NFA), the U.S. self-regulatory organization of the futures and swaps trading industry, has published a new Interpretive Notice entitled “Disclosure Requirements for NFA Members Engaging in...more
8/22/2018
/ CFTC ,
Commodity Pool ,
Commodity Trading Advisors (CTAs) ,
CPOs ,
Derivatives ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Futures ,
NFA ,
Promotional Items ,
Swaps ,
Virtual Currency
With soaring cryptocurrency prices attracting significant new investment in late 2017, U.S. regulators sought to fill the statutory void by exercising jurisdiction over a variety of digital assets. That trend continued in the...more
6/28/2018
/ Bitcoin ,
Blockchain ,
CFTC ,
Commodities ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Digital Currency ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Initial Coin Offering (ICOs) ,
Popular ,
Public Offerings ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Securities ,
Securities Act of 1933 ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
State Securities Regulators ,
Token Sales ,
Virtual Currency
The staff of the Divisions of Enforcement and Trading and Markets (collectively, Staff) of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on March 7, 2018 jointly issued a statement on digital asset trading platforms...more
3/28/2018
/ Alternative Trading System (ATS) ,
Broker-Dealer ,
CFTC ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Digital Currency ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Initial Coin Offering (ICOs) ,
Investor Protection ,
Investors ,
Market Participants ,
Personal Liability ,
Registration Requirement ,
Securities ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Token Sales
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) scored a victory in its effort to assert jurisdiction over portions of the cryptocurrency and initial coin offering (ICO) markets last week, as a federal district judge...more
3/26/2018
/ CFTC ,
Commodities ,
Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) ,
Commodity Trading Advisors (CTAs) ,
CPO ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) ,
Fraud ,
Initial Coin Offering (ICOs) ,
Jurisdiction ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Virtual Currency
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and the CBOE Futures Exchange (CFE) on December 1, 2017 self-certified contracts for bitcoin futures products with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Additionally, on...more
12/20/2017
/ Bitcoin ,
Block Trades ,
CBOE Futures Exchange (CFE) ,
CFTC ,
Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) ,
Commodities ,
Commodities Traders ,
Commodity Futures Contracts ,
Commodity Trading Advisors (CTAs) ,
CPOs ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Exchange-Traded Products ,
NFA ,
Registered Investment Companies (RICs) ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Self-Certification ,
Virtual Currency
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has recently taken several actions to make clear that it is focused on and actively monitoring the rapidly growing market for so-called “token sales” or “initial coin...more
9/13/2017
/ Capital Formation ,
CFTC ,
Crowdfunding ,
Cybersecurity ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Hackers ,
Information Reports ,
Initial Coin Offering (ICOs) ,
Investigations ,
Investment Funds ,
Investor Protection ,
Popular ,
Pump and Dump ,
Registration Requirement ,
Risk Alert ,
Scams ,
Securities ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Exchange Act ,
Securities Transactions ,
State Securities Claims ,
Token Sales