Goodwin is a proud sponsor of TokenFest, taking place March 15 & 16, 2018 in San Francisco, CA. Mitzi Chang, a partner in Goodwin’s Digital Currency + Blockchain Technology practice, will be a featured speaker on a panel of legal experts discussing compliance and regulation for token crowd sales. For…
On the same day that a meteorological blizzard slammed the Eastern Seaboard, U.S. financial regulators unleashed their own flurry of statements and warnings surrounding initial coin offerings (ICOs) and cryptocurrencies. Bundle up, because if the first week of the year is a prelude of things to come, then 2018 is…
The SEC Office of Investor Education and Advocacy recently issued a bulletin listing its 10 most popular Investor Alerts and Bulletins for 2017. Numbers 1 (Initial Coin Offerings) and 2 (Public Companies Making ICO-related Claims) specifically related to Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) and number 9 (Celebrity Endorsements) arguably was also…
Major derivatives market operators CBOE Holdings and CME Group have jumped into the digital currency fray within the last two weeks by launching cash-settled bitcoin futures contracts (1). The exchanges recently cleared de facto regulatory hurdles when the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced the completion of the exchanges’ “self-certification”…
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently issued two warnings about investments sold on the basis of celebrity endorsements, including one relating to initial coin offerings (ICOs), and followed up with enforcement actions against unregistered ICOs. Investors can be misled by biased promotions. Receipt of cash or other consideration in…
Goodwin Partner Kelsey Lemaster spoke to CoinDesk earlier this week, discussing the potential implications of tax reform on cryptocurrency companies and investors. To read the full article, click here.
On December 4, 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) announced that it has filed charges against two individuals for their roles in the initial coin offering (“ICO”) of PlexCoin Tokens. The SEC charged Dominic Lacroix and Sabrina Paradis-Royer with engaging in an ongoing securities fraud and the unlawful…
On August 30, 2017, the Israeli equivalent of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Israeli Security Authority (“ISA”) announced it had formed a committee to study whether, and how, to apply Israeli securities laws to initial coin offerings (“ICOs”). Specifically, the ISA stated it would examine six issues related…
Part of their “View From the Top” series, the MIT Club of Northern California will host a night of networking and an informative panel discussion titled “Blockchain, Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency and ICOs” on Wednesday, December 6, 2017 at the Intercontinental San Francisco. Panel discussion topics include: what is a cryptocurrency and…
Kelsey Lemaster, Partner in Goodwin’s Tax and Digital Currency + Blockchain Technology groups, will be a featured speaker at Consensus: Invest 2017, taking place on Tuesday, November 28th at the New York Marriott Marquis. CoinDesk is hosting what it’s billed as the “World’s first digital asset investor outlook event.” At the…