Creating A User Friendly Blockchain with Andrew Levine, CEO, Koinos Group
An Introduction to Crypto for Financial Services Professionals
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
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
Crypto Companies Announce Licenses, Acquisitions, New Products - According to recent reports, a major Chicago-based digital asset trading desk recently obtained a BitLicense from the New York Department of Financial...more
CryptoLink is a compilation of news stories published by outside organizations. Akin aggregates the stories, but the information contained in them does not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of the firm. Akin's May...more
On May 23, 2024, the Staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Trading and Markets (the “SEC”) approved rule changes (so-called “19b-4 forms”) permitting the listing and trading of eight separate...more
Crypto Product News: BTC/ETH ETNs, Custody, Insurance, Tokenized Treasuries - The London Stock Exchange (LSE) recently published a market notice addressing applications for Bitcoin and Ether exchange traded notes (ETNs),...more
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved proposals from three stock exchanges to list and trade shares of 11 spot bitcoin-based products (the “Spot BTC Approval”). Following the Spot BTC Approval, the...more
The New Year is upon us, which means plenty of news stories looking back at blockchain events in 2023, such as this one (From NFTs to XRP: the biggest crypto stories of 2023 (Axios)), this one (The Year that Cryptocurrency...more
Starting July 1, 2025, any person or entity engaged in a “digital financial asset business activity” within California or with a California resident will be required to obtain a license from the California Department of...more
Federal and state regulators have taken an increased interest in regulating cryptocurrencies, digital assets, and the larger blockchain ecosystem. This landscape is opaque and rapidly evolving, and many industry participants...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
Key Point - Just over two weeks after the SEC announced the settlement of its first NFT enforcement action against Impact Theory, on September 13, 2023, the SEC announced its second NFT enforcement action against SC2, the...more
The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) issued a cease-and-desist order on August 28, 2023, charging Impact Theory, LLC (“Impact Theory”) with conducting an unregistered offering of crypto asset securities in violation...more
In a published settlement of the charges on August 28, 2023, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) stated that non-fungible tokens (“NFTs”) issued by Impact Theory, LLC (“Impact”) were “securities” under US...more
Summary - The SEC’s focus on the crypto industry expanded this week to include non-fungible tokens (NFTs). In its first NFT-enforcement action, the SEC settled with Impact Theory, a media and entertainment company, over...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
On March 9, 2023, the New York State Attorney General’s Office (NYAG) filed a lawsuit charging crypto trading platform KuCoin for “failing to register as a securities and commodities broker-dealer and falsely representing...more
White House Addresses Crypto Risks; Blockchain Firm Wins Air Force Contract - The White House issued a statement last week briefly outlining the Biden administration’s road map to mitigate the risks of cryptocurrencies,...more
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed an enforcement action against crypto influencer Ian Balina in the Western District of Texas alleging that he promoted unregistered securities in connection with the...more
On September 15, 2022, the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry (the “Ag. Committee”) held a hearing to discuss Senate Bill 4760, titled the Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act of 2022 (the “Bill”)...more
Ethereum Network Completes Transition to Proof of Stake Consensus - After years of development and delays, Ethereum’s long-awaited “merge” occurred this week, changing the network’s consensus mechanism from proof-of-work...more
As of this writing, the Ethereum “Merge,” one of the most anticipated events in blockchain history, is finally expected to occur in September 2022. The “Merge” will shift the Ethereum blockchain (native token ETH, or ether)...more
If your staff member wants his or her paycheck in cryptocurrency, should you – as an employer keeping up with the times — accommodate the request? You don’t have to work in Silicon Valley or play for the NFL to field this...more
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has not hesitated to conclude that crypto assets are securities subject to the Securities Act of 1933, but with BlockFi, the SEC went a step further and, for the first time with...more
Rob Musiala, a Counsel in the Digital Assets and Data Management group and the co-leader of our Blockchain Technologies and Digital Currencies team, breaks down everything you need to know about NFTs, all in 10 minutes or...more