On August 18, 2025, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed two bills that created, in his words, first-of-their-kind safeguards in the Midwest for cryptocurrency and other digital assets. The legislation was in part a response to an FBI report that Illinois consumers lost $272 million in fraud cases involving cryptocurrency in 2024, representing the most common type of financial fraud. And, not surprisingly for a person who reportedly sees himself as a future Democratic presidential candidate,…
On July 18, 2025, President Trump signed into law the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins Act (“GENIUS Act”), marking a pivotal moment in the evolution of digital asset regulation. As the first comprehensive federal framework governing payment stablecoins, the GENIUS Act introduces a robust regulatory regime designed to enhance market integrity and consumer protection. The GENIUS Act will take effect on the earlier of (i) January 18, 2027 (i.e., 18 months following…
On July 4, 2025, the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act (the “Act”) was signed into law, making important changes to the Internal Revenue Code (the “Code”). The Act has implications for US and non-US companies and their domestic and international transactions, capital investment, and research and development activities, amongst other areas, which carry significant weight for the cryptocurrency/digital asset industry. From cryptocurrency exchanges, payment processors, asset managers and cryptocurrency funds to mining companies, token issuers,…
Earlier this month, New Zealand banned cryptocurrency ATMs. The move underscores a growing international trend: regulators are increasingly scrutinizing the cash-to-crypto pipeline, viewing it as a significant vulnerability for illicit finance. While the ban has sparked debate within the crypto community, it also offers a valuable case study in how jurisdictions are grappling with the intersection of digital assets and financial regulation. On July 16, 2025, David Zaslowsky published an article in the New York…
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…
The cryptocurrency world has been rocked this week by an episode involving the LIBRA token and Argentina’s President Javier Milei. What began as a seemingly promising initiative quickly turned into a controversy that has had significant political and financial repercussions. The LIBRA memecoin was launched on February 14, 2025. One of the men allegedly behind the launch, Kelsier CEO Hayden Davis, claimed that he was also involved in the launch of the MELANIA memecoin (for the…
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…