A Conversation with SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce
El Salvador’s Bitcoin Nation: A Government Insider’s View
Exploring the AI and Crypto Intersection
A Tale of Two Crypto Cases
The Justice Insiders Podcast: The Sam Bankman-Fried Trial: Defendants Testifying (Poorly), FOMO, and How to Actually Blame Lawyers
Digital Planning Podcast Episode: Exploring DAOs
Turning up the Heat – A Look at the FTC’s Groundbreaking Fine Against Bankrupt Digital Asset Services Provider Celsius Network LLC - The Crypto Exchange Podcast
Crypto Year in Review 2022: State-Level Regulatory Developments in the Digital Asset Market - The Crypto Exchange Podcast
Episode 256: The FTX Scandal and Cryptocurrency Risks: Featuring Matt Stankiewicz from The Volkov Law Group
Bankruptcy Filings Among Crypto Exchanges: Is This a Sign of the Future? - The Crypto Exchange Podcast
Navigating the Impact of Counterparty Insolvency and Negative Market Conditions in the Crypto Space
Whose Crypto Is It Anyway? Bankruptcy and Crypto - The Crypto Exchange Podcast
Part 2: Additional Implications for Cryptocurrency Companies in Bankruptcy
Crypto Enforcement Is Here, and Always Has Been
Crypto and DeFi Platforms: Aggressive SEC Enforcement on the Way?
Professor Ann Lipton recently wrote about an ingenious scheme developed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation that has resulted in indictments of 18 individuals and entities for alleged fraud and manipulation in the crypto...more
In a recent decision in SEC v. Payward, Inc. (d/b/a “Kraken”), Judge Orrick of the Northern District of California denied Kraken's motion to dismiss the SEC's suit against it. In its complaint, the SEC alleges that Kraken...more
On July 22, 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) declared nine registration statements effective under the Securities Act of 1933 for spot Ether ETFs, clearing the way for the ETFs to begin trading on July 23....more
Key Points - In a thorough decision, a federal district judge in New York largely denied Coinbase’s motion for judgment on the pleadings in a case brought by the SEC. Applying the plaintiff-friendly standards required at the...more
By: Jeffrey M. Haber On many occasions, we have written about Ponzi schemes that have been the subject of enforcement actions brought by, and/or settlements with, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC” or the...more
On March 8, 2024, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed a trial court decision dismissing a putative securities class action brought by purchasers of crypto assets against an international crypto...more
Financial Institutions Add Bitcoin ETFs, Crypto Product Integrations Continue - According to recent reports, two major U.S. financial institutions have begun offering spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to their...more
Decentralized Finance (DeFi) is an umbrella term used to describe financial services provided outside of the traditional markets, that rely on blockchain technologies to create innovative products instead of relying on...more
Of the 46 enforcement actions in 2023: 26 actions (57%) alleged fraud under Section 17(a) - of the Securities Act and/or Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5 of the Exchange Act; 28 (61%) alleged an unregistered securities...more
Like many other industries, Registered Investment Advisers ("RIAs") have dealt with significant regulatory, technological, and systemic change in recent years. Compared to FINRA-regulated entities, RIAs often face these...more
Key Points - In SEC v. Terraform, the court has granted summary judgment for the SEC on its claim that the defendants offered and sold unregistered securities in the form of “crypto assets.” This comes amidst the SEC...more
Last year, the Court in SEC v. Terraform Labs suggested, by denying the defendants’ motion to dismiss, that the sale of a digital asset to the public on a secondary market may constitute a security. Now, the Court has...more
...SEC Adopts Amendments to Fund Names Rule - On September 20, 2023, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted amendments to Rule 35d-1 under the Investment Company Act of 1940 (the Fund Names Rule) as well...more
On August 4, 2023, celebrity singer Austin Mahone entered into a settlement agreement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) after being sued in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York (SDNY)...more
In Short - The Situation: Recently, two judges in Southern District of New York were required to apply the Howey test in separate cases to decide whether sales of certain crypto assets were investment contracts, and thus...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
The Nutter Securities Enforcement Update is a periodic summary of noteworthy recent securities enforcement activity, settlements, decisions, and charges. ...more
In a one-two punch earlier this month, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) brought successive actions against two of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges – the first blows in what will likely be...more
In the span of two days, June 5 and June 6, 2023, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) commenced proceedings against the largest crypto asset exchange in the world, Binance.com; its affiliated US exchange,...more
On March 22, 2023, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a complaint in US District Court for the Southern District of New York against Justin Sun, the owner of BitTorrent, Inc., a file-sharing platform; three...more
Dapper Labs was founded in 2018 shortly after the debut of its first NFT collection, “CryptoKitties,” which was so successful it created a bottleneck of transactions on the decentralized Ethereum Network. Seeking faster...more
The SEC has settled several cases of improper celebrity crypto endorsements over the past several years. The most recent example involved NBA hall of famer Paul Pierce, also known as the “Truth.” The crux of the SEC’s...more
Takeaways: The SEC’s Division of Enforcement set record-highs in total money relief ordered and total civil penalties assessed in fiscal year 2022....more
This OnPoint summarizes the panel discussion at Dechert’s annual investment funds conference that took place in Luxembourg in the last quarter of 2022. At the conference, we discussed the Regulation on the Markets of Crypto...more
Things change, at least sometimes. Take Crypto assets. They began as a way to “get off the grid.” Over time some came on to the grid as their popularity increased. Others stayed off....more