Creating A User Friendly Blockchain with Andrew Levine, CEO, Koinos Group
An Introduction to Crypto for Financial Services Professionals
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
AI Protocols Merge, VC Crypto Funding Increases, Tether Completes SOC 2 Audit - According to a recent press release, “SingularityNET (SNET), the world’s first decentralized Artificial Intelligence (AI) network, Fetch.ai, a...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
Financial Firms Complete Blockchain Pilot, UK Approves Crypto ETNs - A recent press release announced completion of the Canton Network pilot, “a first-of-its-kind program demonstrating the interoperability of twenty-two...more
Cryptocurrency, a digital form of currency that uses cryptography for security, has become a significant part of the global financial landscape. As such, it has also become an important consideration in estate planning. This...more
As noted in our previous alerts “Marketing Crypto-Assets in and Into Europe: MiCA, the EU’s New Uniform Crypto Code” and “Doing Crypto Business in Europe: MiCA, the EU’s New Uniform Crypto Code – Part 2”, the European Union...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
On July 31, 2013, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) formally charged the enigmatic crypto-personality Richard Heart (whose real name, as I learned from the complaint, is Richard Schueler) and his three...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
This week, a federal court in California issued an 80-page opinion that painstakingly walks through claims made against several celebrities who had promoted the Ethereum Max (EMAX) cryptocurrency, also called tokens. The...more
Product Integrations and Data Indicate Increased Interest in DeFi - MetaMask, a web3 Ethereum Network cryptocurrency wallet, recently announced a new integration with a major U.S. payments and fintech firm....more
European Bank Launches Stablecoin; Financial Firms Expand Crypto Products - A subsidiary of a major European financial services firm recently launched EUR CoinVertible (EURCV), an Ethereum ERC20 stablecoin backed 1:1 by...more
Montenegro Announces CBDC Pilot, BIS Compares CBDCs to Stablecoins - According to a recent press release, “The Central Bank of Montenegro (CBCG) has agreed to collaborate with the enterprise crypto and blockchain solutions...more
In his famous 2018 speech, William Hinman, Digital Asset Transactions: When Howey Met Gary (Plastic), the Director of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), asked...more
The NFT community has been humming in 2023 after the recent rise in Bitcoin NFT mints. Ordinals, a non-fungible token (“NFT”) protocol, sent the community buzzing in January 2023 when it launched on the Bitcoin blockchain (as...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
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
On December 1, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit vacated and remanded a district court’s decision to certify a class of more than 200,000 retirees alleging that collateralized loans serviced by the...more
At 2:43am EST on September 15, 2022, the first Ethereum block was validated using Proof of Stake, signaling the success of the Ethereum Merge, one of the most anticipated events in blockchain and computer science history. The...more
Online cryptocurrency promotion—and promotion on social media in particular—has garnered national media attention in recent months. First, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it had entered into a...more
In late October, a New York district court refused to dismiss the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) indictment against defendant Nathaniel Chastain, who was charged with wire fraud and money laundering relating to his using...more
The blockchain underpinning the ether cryptocurrency has just been made more energy-efficient, secure, and scalable. Ethereum, the blockchain that powers the ether (ETH) cryptocurrency, has upgraded its system in a move...more
New Crypto Products Launch; Singapore Completes DeFi Pilot with Major Banks - In a press release published this week, a major U.S. cross-border payments and money transfer company announced a new service in its existing...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
The early dismissal of a federal lawsuit that could have resolved whether certain cryptocurrency tokens can be taxed as federal income feels like business as usual for an industry accustomed to uncertainty. At issue in this...more