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Aiden O'Leary

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On July 13, 2023, Judge Analisa Torres of the United States District Court or the Southern District of New York issued an Order on competing motions for summary judgment in the closely followed SEC v. Ripple Labs, Inc. litigation. As the first court decision to broadly address the question of whether a cryptocurrency itself is a security, as the SEC has maintained it is in most circumstances, the Order may have broad implications to the state of…

The pace of the SEC’s crypto crackdown ramped up in early June 2023 with the Commission’s highest profile actions against crypto trading platforms since the crypto market turmoil at the end of 2022. The SEC’s actions place crypto trading platforms and the market as a whole on extremely uncertain regulatory footing in the US, and the frustration from the industry is palpable. The SEC’s enforcement activity comes immediately on the heels of promising legislative efforts from Congress,…

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has brought another string of cases against well-known celebrities for touting crypto assets on social media without disclosing the payments they received for these endorsements. Back in December 2022, the SEC made headlines for fining Kim Kardashian $1.26 million based on her Instagram posts that proclaimed the supposed benefits of EthereumMax and its EMAX tokens. (see our post here) These advertisements failed to disclose that she was compensated,…

Following a host of notable bankruptcy filings in the digital asset industry, the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) recently issued guidance (the DFS Guidance) to emphasize sound custody and disclosure practices for firms providing digital asset custody services to better protect customers in the event of an insolvency or similar proceeding. While the Guidance applies only to DFS-regulated digital asset firms, it picks up on a common concern from other U.S. regulators,…

On September 16, 2022 the White House released its Comprehensive Framework for Responsible Development of Digital Assets (Framework) for how the administration plans to address digital assets as a part of its “whole-of-government approach”, which was first outlined in a March 9 Executive Order (EO) issued by President Joe Biden. In the short-term, the Framework does little to alter the regulatory uncertainty that has allowed many bad actors in the digital asset space to thrive while stymieing responsible growth. There are…

During the week of August 15, 2022, the Federal Reserve Board (“FRB”) included digital assets (or, as it refers to them, “crypto-assets”) in various internal and external notices, possibly signaling to the industry the emergence of a coordinated stance. While none of these communications alone provide much clarity, taken together we can begin to hear the FRB’s message: proceed, but with the utmost caution. August 15 – FRB Guidelines for approving reserve bank accounts…

On June 7, 2022, Senators Cynthia M. Lummis (R-WY) and Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY) introduced a bill to regulate digital assets and promote financial innovation. The proposed legislation is the first significant, bipartisan effort to apply comprehensive regulation to digital assets. The proposed legislation begins with the premise that digital assets are commodities and their regulation appropriately rests with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Under the regime as contemplated, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) would be…

In the wake of last month’s collapse of the TerraUSD token, a broad array of regulators and government officials have attempted to introduce a legal framework around stablecoins. Recently, Japan passed comprehensive legislation around the issuance of stablecoins. In the United States, Senators Lummis (R-WY) and Gillibrand (D-NY) recently introduced a bill into the US Congress that would, among other things, set requirements for the amount of backing assets stablecoin issuers would be required to…