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…
Gemini Trust Company (“Gemini”) is a New York‑based cryptocurrency trust company founded by Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss. The associated cryptocurrency exchange is now known as Gemini Space Station. The Securities and Exchange Commission’s 2023 lawsuit against Gemini was one of the most closely watched legal battles to emerge from the turmoil of the 2022 crypto‑market collapses. On January 23, 2026, the lawsuit came to an end with a dismissal of the case. The Underlying Lawsuit…
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 17, 2025, the Staff of the Division of Trading and Markets (the “Division”) of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) issued a Statement explaining its views on the application of paragraph (b)(1) of SEC Rule 15c3-3 to broker-dealers seeking to establish custody of crypto asset securities. Rule 15c3‑3, commonly called the Customer Protection Rule, requires broker-dealers to maintain physical possession or control of all fully paid and excess margin securities held for customers. Historically,…
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,…
On May 20, 2025, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a sweeping enforcement action against Unicoin Inc., a New York-based crypto company, and several of its senior executives. The lawsuit, which alleges a $100 million fraud scheme affecting thousands of investors, stands as one of the most high-profile crypto enforcement actions of the year. It also offers a revealing lens into the SEC’s evolving enforcement posture under the Trump administration’s second term. To…
We have written about some of the significant changes under the new Trump administration with respect to cryptocurrency. See here. There was another seismic shift on April 7, 2025 with the memorandum that Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche wrote to all employees of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) which, among other things, “effective immediately,” disbanded the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET) and took other steps to implement President’s Trump statement that “[w]e are…
We have already written about steps taken by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission during the very early days of the Trump administration to distinguish itself in the cryptocurrency space from the SEC under its former Chairman, Gary Gensler. There was recission of Staff Accounting Bulletin 121, which made it easier to custody crypto assets. See here. That was followed by the SEC’s pausing of a number of crypto lawsuits. See here. Then, the SEC voluntary…
In somewhat of a surprising turn of events, on February 19, 2025, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed voluntary motions to dismiss its appeals of parallel decisions handed down by U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor. These decisions had vacated the SEC’s February 2024 “Dealer Rule” that sought to broaden the definition of “dealer” to include proprietary trading firms, certain hedge funds, and crypto firms. This move by the SEC is another indication in…
We have already written about steps taken by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission during the early days of the Trump administration to distinguish itself from the SEC under former chair Gary Gensler. See here. This post examines further evidence of that change. Under Chairman Gensler’s leadership, the SEC took an assertive stance on cryptocurrency regulation. Gensler, who served as SEC Chair from 2021 to January 20, 2025, said that he was prioritizing investor protection…