Coinme is a company that started by making cryptocurrency transactions available through ATM machines. It originally used its own ATMs but, in January 2019, abandoned that business model and used, instead, the kiosks of the coin counting company, Coinstar. On April 28, 2023, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced settled charges with Coinme, its subsidiary Up Global, and CEO Respondent Neil Bergquist for conducting unregistered offers and sales of securities in the form of…
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…
On April 17, 2023, the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission charged crypto asset trading platform Bittrex, Inc. and its co-founder and former CEO William Shihara. with operating an unregistered national securities exchange, broker, and clearing agency. It also charged Bittrex, Inc.’s foreign affiliate, Bittrex Global GmbH, with failing to register as a national securities exchange in connection with its operation of a single shared order book along with Bittrex. The complaint was filed in federal court…
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,…
It was no surprise when the SEC recently denied the most recent request for a spot Bitcoin ETF. That has been the SEC’s response to every such application ever made to it. This particular request was by VanEck, which had already had an earlier request denied as well. According to the SEC, generally speaking, the submission was not sufficiently structured to prevent fraud and manipulation. In language it has used before, the SEC said: The…
Nexo Financial LLC is a company that describes itself as a leading cryptocurrency institution offering a number of digital assets services through its website. It offered its customers, among other things, an Earn Interest Product (EIP), which allowed customers to lend certain digital assets in interest-bearing accounts. In a proceeding before the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Nexo argued in response to a civil investigative demand that the Bureau lacked jurisdiction because the Securities and Exchange…
We have followed for years the saga of the many applications for a spot Bitcoin ETF that have been denied by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). See here and here. In April 2022, however, the SEC approved the Teucrium ETF — resting its decision on the fact that it was a futures ETF. But, unlike the earlier approved funds that had been filed under the 40 Act, Teucrium had filed under the Securities…
On November 18, 2022, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission issued an order instituting administrative proceedings against American CryptoFed DAO LLC (“American CryptoFed”), an issuer of digital assets, to determine whether a stop order should be issued denying or suspending the effective date of the registration of the Ducat and Locke tokens (the “Tokens”) under the Securities Act of 1933 (the “Securities Act”). The SEC’s Enforcement Division (“Enforcement”) alleges that American CryptoFed’s Form S-1 registration statement…
Early posts in this blog mentioned how former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Jay Clayton famously told Congress in February 2018 that “I believe every ICO I’ve seen is a security.” His successor, current SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, has said on multiple occasions (for example, here) that he believes the vast majority of digital tokens are securities. In a decision issued on November 7, 2022, U.S. District Judge Paul J. Barbadoro held that…
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced on October 3, 2022 that it brought charges against Kim Kardashian for touting on social media a crypto asset security offered and sold by EthereumMax without disclosing the payment she received for the promotion. The following are based on the SEC Order, On June 13, 2021, Kardashian promoted EthereumMax with a post on her Instagram account. She received approximately $250,000 for the post. At the time of her…