Each month, we publish a roundup of the most important SEC enforcement developments for busy in-house lawyers and compliance professionals. This month, we examine: •The SEC’s case against crypto firm Kraken is permitted to...more
The decision, which addresses a broad range of market activity by Coinbase relating to 13 third-party tokens, could have significant implications for market participants. On March 27, 2024, Judge Katherine Failla of the 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
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
Three federal judges in the Southern District of New York sit at the center of the long-running battle between the SEC and the crypto industry, overseeing cases that may eventually bring clarity to the industry. After two...more
Just barely two weeks ago, we wrote about the half-victory for Ripple Labs in its ongoing litigation with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), in which Judge Analisa Torres granted partial summary judgment in favor...more
On July 13th, Judge Analisa Torres of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York entered an order that was quickly celebrated by the crypto world (SEC v. Ripple Labs, Inc., No. 20CIV10832ATSN;...more
On July 13, Judge Analisa Torres, district judge for the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, issued a substantial order (the Order) on cross motions for summary judgment in the U.S. Securities...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
While a conclusion to the much-hyped case may be approaching, market participants should be wary of doomsday prognostications. As a new year begins, the digital assets industry is still enduring a deep and widespread crypto...more
NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are digital assets that are sharply rising in popularity. Every day, individuals are launching new NFT projects with similar or new features compared to prior NFT projects. NFTs are attractive to...more
This article is the fifth in a multi-part series in which we explain how the SEC has structured its anti-cryptocurrency campaign, why the SEC has over-reached its regulatory authority in attacking the creators of digital...more
In December 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed an action against Ripple Labs, Inc. and two of its executives, alleging they raised over $1.3 billion through an unregistered ongoing securities offering of...more
The cryptocurrency and blockchain industry has developed over the past decade with a large and increasingly glaring void: What regulations ultimately will apply and who will regulate the space? Much regulatory focus to date...more
A key question for any company considering the issuance of cryptocurrency is whether that digital asset will be treated by regulators as a security, like BP stock, or a commodity, like Bitcoin. In 2019, the Securities and...more
Whether a cryptocurrency product is a security is an issue with serious regulatory consequences. In recent years, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) has taken a broad position that various crypto assets are...more
Pending before the Second Circuit is a unique (and apparently sua sponte) application of the jurisdictional test announced by the Supreme Court in Morrison v. Nat’l Australia Bank Ltd., to dismiss non-securities state law...more
“Decentralization” is a concept that has consistently vexed the entire blockchain-enabled ecosystem in the U.S., including its counsel and regulators, wherein a lack of clarity on the exact definition of decentralization has...more
On December 21, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a high-profile enforcement action against a major cryptocurrency company. The SEC complaint alleges violations of federal securities laws by defendant...more
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced on September 15, 2020, that it charged online esports gaming and gambling platform Unikrn with violations of Section 5 of the Securities Act of 1933 (Securities Act) for...more
Hollywood martial arts sensei Steven Seagal was recently karate-chopped by the SEC for his alleged undisclosed payments for Twitter-touting a security that was being offered and sold in an initial coin offering. In a settled...more
Based on a recent regulatory statement, entities involved with cryptocurrency or digital assets should revisit their anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism obligations (AML/CFT) compliance under the...more
U.S. Developments - Mark Zuckerberg Testifies Before U.S. House of Representatives Regarding Libra - On October 23, Facebook, Inc. CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, testified before the House Committee on Financial Services regarding...more
In this issue, we examine the release of the much-anticipated Strategic Hub for Innovation and Financial Technology (FinHub) guidance for analyzing how U.S. federal securities laws apply to initial coin offerings, the...more
In its long-awaited guidance, the Staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission recently provided a lengthy list of factors to consider when determining whether an initial coin offering (ICO) is a security. While the...more