On January 29, 2026, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) held a closely watched joint public meeting on cryptocurrency regulation and market structure. Led by SEC Chair Paul Atkins and CFTC Chair Michael Selig, the meeting marked one of the most visible efforts in years to present a coordinated federal regulatory approach to digital assets. While the meeting did not result in new rules, its importance lies…
Earlier this week, the Senate Banking Committee appeared poised to advance the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act, a sweeping effort to establish a comprehensive federal framework for digital assets. The legislation passed the House during last summer’s “Crypto Week.” See our post here. The momentum evaporated after leading industry participants publicly withdrew support for the bill’s revised text. Within hours, on January 14, committee leadership delayed the markup, with no new date announced. The Senate’s sudden…
On December 4, 2025, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced that spot cryptocurrency products will begin trading for the first time on federally registered futures exchanges. This decision, announced by Acting Chair Caroline Pham, is part of a deliberate effort to bring the largely offshore and sometimes volatile spot crypto market under a U.S. regulatory umbrella, offering investors the robust customer protections and market integrity associated with century-old federal standards. Under this new framework,…
On September 2, 2025, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued a landmark Joint Statement that could reshape the future of cryptocurrency trading in the United States. In a rare show of unity, the two agencies clarified that registered exchanges are not prohibited from listing and facilitating the trading of certain spot crypto asset products, including those involving leverage, margin, or financing. Depending on what happens next,…
There has been much publicity around the cases that the U.S. Commodity and Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) has brought against exchanges, such as Binance. Those cases, according to the CFTC, were meant to demonstrate that the CFTC would not tolerate digital asset exchanges that fail to register with the CFTC or comply with the agency’s rules concerning the derivatives markets. On May 13, 2024, the CFTC went one step further down the chain in, for…
On September 7th, 2023, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) announced settlement orders against three operators of decentralized finance (“DeFi”) protocols: Opyn, Inc. (“Opyn”), Deridex, Inc. (“Deridex”), and ZeroEx, Inc. (“ZeroEx”). The announcement is a clear message that the CFTC will be asserting jurisdiction in the DeFi space, and may be as much a signal to the SEC as it is a message to the DeFi industry that the CFTC is claiming crypto regulatory…
On June 8, 2023, Judge Orrick of the Northern District California entered an Order and Default Judgment in a case the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) brought against the Ooki DAO. The case has garnered a lot of attention because of issues it raised concerning whether a DAO (a decentralized autonomous organization) could be held liable for violating the law. Indeed, the CFTC issued a Statement that said: [I]n a precedent-setting decision, the court…
In previous posts, we addressed the interesting service of process issues that were the subject of a number of decisions in the lawsuit that the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) brought against Ooki DAO (a DAO is a decentralized autonomous organization). But the case has also received a lot of attention for the larger issues of a proceeding against a decentralized organization and who might be liable for its acts. The court’s recent…
In an earlier post, we reported that Judge William Orrick of the Northern District of California had authorized service of process on Ooki DAO (a DAO is a decentralized autonomous organization) through a Help Chat Box on Ooki DAO’s website, with contemporaneous notice through an Online Forum linked through its website. In another post, we reported that the Judge Orrick subsequently required the CFTC also to serve process on two Token Holders once it was…
In an earlier post, we reported that a judge had authorized service of process on a DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) through a Help Chat Box on the DAO’s website, with contemporaneous notice through an Online Forum linked through its website. Four amici — venture capital firms Paradigm and Andreessen Horowitz, crypto legal consortium LeXpunK, and the DeFi Education Fund — sought reconsideration of that decision. On December 12, 2023, Judge William Orrick issued an order…