Podcast: Is Cryptocurrency a Security (like an orange grove)?
Episode 286 -- Matt Stankiewicz on the Ripple Decision and Celsius CEO Indictment
From Station Wagon to Lamborghini: One CypherPunk’s Journey from Cryptoanarchy to Solana Cross-Chain NFT Innovations
Wax Studios
Summer Enforcement Action Review; Raising Money in a Pandemic - Investment Management Roundtable Discussion
Theoretical No More: Blockchain Technology, Cryptocurrencies and the Tax, Legal and Business Implications
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
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
A US court recently handed down a landmark ruling addressing the question of whether the crypto token XRP falls under the definition of “security”. The US court ruled that the same crypto token may be classified differently...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
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
The SEC’s reliance on a nebulous US Supreme Court decision raises important questions for the future of decentralized finance. Reves v. Ernst & Young,[1] a 30-year-old US Supreme Court decision on farmers’ co-ops, is...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
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
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
On September 11, 2018, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York denied a motion to dismiss an indictment of a Brooklyn real estate entrepreneur in relation to two virtual currency investment schemes and...more
This is Part 2 of a seven-part series of posts looking at some broad legal issues affecting crypto-currencies. State and federal regulators, especially the SEC, have moved aggressively to halt unregistered initial coin...more
The market for cryptocurrencies and the current wave of initial coin offerings (ICOs) that seek to raise capital for blockchain-based projects have enjoyed a swell of popularity in recent years. U.S. regulatory agencies and...more
On July 25, 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a Report of Investigation pursuant to Section 21(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (Report) and an Investor Bulletin: Initial Coin Offerings...more
For the past few months, issuers of token sales or “initial coin offerings” (ICOs) have known that they were, to some extent, sailing in unchartered waters. Those waters have just gotten a bit murkier with an announcement by...more