On April 25, 2022, European Central Bank Executive Board member Fabio Panetta delivered a speech at Columbia University in New York in which he was very critical of cryptoassets. As indicated in the title of the speech — “For a Few Cryptos More: the Wild West of Crypto Finance” — Mr. Panetta compared cryptocurrencies to the Wild West gold rush in the United States in the second half of the 19th century (while also working…
In late March 2022, in the opening hours of Blockchain Week, Minister Jane Hum announced that the Australian Government had released a consultation paper which proposed a new regulatory and licensing regime for ‘crypto asset secondary service providers’ (CASSPrs). This followed a call by Senator Andrew Bragg earlier that day for crypto reforms to be consolidated into a comprehensive legislative package (including a ‘Digital Services Act’). A write-up concerning these proposals may be found here.
In a Statement published on March 23, 2022 (as translated using Google Translate), the Thai Securities and Exchange Commission announced that, starting April 1, 2022, digital assets (e.g., Bitcoin) will be banned as a method of payment. Business operators who find that customers are using digital assets to pay for goods or services must notify the user and take action against them, such as suspending or terminating their accounts. The Statement provided a number of…
In November 2021, Floki Inu, a cryptocurrency, ran an ad across the London Underground. The ad had an image of a cartoon dog wearing a Viking helmet. The text stated “MISSED DOGE. GET FLOKI”. Smaller text at the bottom of the ad said, “Your investment may go down as well as up in value. Crypto currency is not regulated in the UK.” The U.K.’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) challenged the ad. Floki Inu explained that…
On February 8, 2022, the U.S. government arrested Ilya Liechtenstein and Heather Morgan and charged them with conspiracy to launder the proceeds of 119,754 Bitcoin which had been stolen from cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex in a 2016 hack. The present value of the theft is approximately $4.5 billion and the U.S. government has seized approximately 94,000 Bitcoin thus far. The seized Bitcoin is valued at $3.6 billion and represents the DOJ’s largest ever cryptocurrency seizure. The…
On October 6, 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice announced the launch of the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET) “to tackle complex investigations and prosecutions of criminal misuses of cryptocurrency, particularly crimes committed by virtual currency exchanges, mixing and tumbling services, and money laundering infrastructure actors.” Crypto mixing and tumbling services help users reduce traceability by obscuring the sources of their funds. As part of this announcement, the DOJ asserted that cryptocurrency is the “primary…
We recently reported about how U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Gary Gensler has made numerous comments concerning increased regulation over various aspects of the cryptocurrency industry. That same theme was part of his prepared remarks to Congress on September 14, 2021. The Chairman remarked that there was not enough investor protection in crypto finance, issuance, trading, or lending. He said: “[A]t this time, it’s more like the Wild West or the old world of…
This is an update to our previous posts about the cases that the SEC and New York State Attorney General brought against Coinseed, a company that purported to offer a mobile investment application that enabled users to invest in digital assets. On September 13, 2021, the NY Attorney General announced that her office had obtained a judgment permanently enjoining Coinseed’s operations. It was a default judgment. According to the AG, after a preliminary injunction had…
It was big news when the U.S. Senate recently passed the $1 trillion infrastructure bill. One aspect of that bill was a revenue raising provision aimed at the cryptocurrency industry. In an article that was just published in Bloomberg’s Tax Management Memorandum, we look at the nuts and bolts of that provision, and take a deeper dive into the criticism of the bill by the cryptocurrency community, as well as the failed attempt to modify the bill…
The New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) is the department of the New York state government responsible for regulating financial services and products, including banking and financial services firms. On July 29, 2021 DFS Superintendent Linda A. Lacewell announced new action by DFS to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in the banking and non-depository financial industries. In the industry letter to New York-regulated banking institutions and New York-regulated non-depository financial institutions, DFS outlined its…