On Jan. 14, 2019, Danish tax agency Skattestryrelsen received authorization from the nation’s tax council to collect two years of cryptocurrency trading information from three Danish crypto exchanges to ensure that its citizens have paid correct taxes. The three exchanges must now provide the tax agency with information on all purchases and sales of cryptocurrencies – including Bitcoin – made by their customers during the period from Jan. 1, 2016 through Dec. 31, 2018. Customer…
On December 17 we published an article in Law360 describing the SEC’s busy November in which it secured three “firsts” in its crackdown on unlawful digital activity: (1) its first enforcement action against an entity for operating as an unregulated national securities exchange; (2) its first cases imposing civil penalties solely for ICO securities offering registration violations; and (3) its first cases charging touting violations involving ICOs. By highlighting its own “firsts,” the SEC was…
LabCFTC, the FinTech engagement arm of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), this week released a primer on smart contracts that provides examples of contract logic, describes a decentralized blockchain, and details applications. The primer also highlights potential operational and regulatory challenges and risks. The primer acknowledges that a smart contract potentially can be a binding legal contract subject to a variety of legal frameworks. Among them are the CFTC, federal and state securities, tax,…
On November 8, the SEC settled charges against Zachary Coburn, the founder of EtherDelta, a digital token trading platform. This is the SEC’s first enforcement action against an entity for operating as an unregulated national securities exchange. Mr. Coburn consented to the SEC’s order and agreed to pay $300,000 in disgorgement, $13,000 in prejudgment interest, and a $75,000 penalty. In its order, the SEC concluded that EtherDelta’s trading system met the definition of “exchange” under…