On April 14, 2023, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) reopened the comment period and provided supplemental information on proposed amendments to Rule 3b-16 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Exchange Act”) which defines certain terms used in the definition of “exchange” in Section 3(a)(1) of the Exchange Act.. The reopening is primarily intended to address the significant comments received by the SEC in response to the initial proposal, many of which…
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,…
Potentially in connection with the recent events rocking the crypto industry, FINRA is conducting a new sweep on “Crypto Asset Communications” by broker-dealers. If they haven’t already received the request, broker-dealers with crypto-related affiliates likely will be contacted. Notably, this is the first announced sweep that FINRA has issued in over a year. This Crypto Asset sweep is not limited to communications about crypto assets that are “securities,” and it requests recent crypto asset communications over a…