On February 28, 2023, the National Futures Association (NFA), the self-regulatory organization for U.S. derivatives market participants, submitted to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for approval a new Compliance Rule 2-51: Requirements for Members and Associates Engaged in Activities Involving Digital Asset Commodities. Compliance Rule 2-51 would impose compliance…
In a recent client alert, Goodwin partner John Servidio and associate Adam Fovent discuss the International Swaps and Derivatives Association’s (ISDA) Digital Asset Derivatives Definitions. As ISDA CEO Scott O’Malia observed, the Digital Asset Definitions are intended to “establish an unambiguous, standardized contractual framework for digital asset derivatives under the umbrella…
In a first of its kind enforcement action, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) is attempting to hold participating members of a decentralized autonomous organization (“DAO”) liable for alleged violations of the Commodity Exchange Act (“CEA”) and CFTC regulations. The CFTC argued (1) that the DAO is an unincorporated association;…
In 2020, the price of gold has jumped over 30 percent from $1,517 per ounce on January 3, 2020 to over $2,000 per ounce on August 6, 2020. The spike in the price of gold isn’t yet at the level reached in the 2017 Bitcoin boom when the price of…
Speaking at the International Blockchain Congress in Chicago on February 6, 2020, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce proposed a safe harbor from U.S. securities laws so that developers of blockchain protocols could offer and sell tokens for the purpose of developing functioning token networks and creating liquidity for users. Commissioner Peirce’s…