On January 19, 2018, SEC Co-Enforcement Directors Stephanie Avakian and Steven Peikin and CFTC Enforcement Director James McDonald issued the following joint statement regarding virtual currency enforcement actions: “When market participants engage in fraud under the guise of offering digital instruments – whether characterized as virtual currencies, coins, tokens, or…
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”…
Pursuant to its LabCFTC initiative, the regulator issued a FinTech Primer on virtual currencies, including addressing the jurisdictional reach of the CFTC and the SEC (and potential overlap). Several questions remain regarding the already uncertain status of ICOs under the federal securities and commodities laws and regulations. WHAT HAPPENED? On…
Recently, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) granted LedgerX, LLC, registration as a derivatives clearing organization (“DCO”) under the Commodity Exchange Act, and with it, the right to clear fully collateralized digital currency swaps, subject to applicable law. It became the “first federally regulated Bitcoin options exchange and clearinghouse to list…
On August 2, 2016, Hong Kong-based bitcoin exchange Bitfinex was the latest target of hackers who stole 119,756 bitcoins, for a total loss of approximately $72 million at that time. Some are estimating it to be as high as $80,000,000. The Bitfinex hack was notable both because Bitfinex is one of the…
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), showing continued regulatory interest in digital currency companies, issued an Order and settled charges against Hong Kong-based digital currency exchange Bitfinex. The CFTC found that Bitfinex was offering illegal off-exchange financed retail commodity transactions in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, and failed to register…
On March 29, 2016, J. Christopher Giancarlo, the Commissioner of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, spoke at the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation 2016 Blockchain Symposium. His speech encouraged regulators to treat the development of blockchain technology like they treated the internet by adopting a “do no harm”…
On Thursday, Sept. 17, 2015, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued an Order against San Francisco-based Coinflip and its chief executive officer, Francisco Riordan, to resolve allegations that Coinflip conducted activity related to commodity options transactions without complying with the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and CFTC Regulations. Specifically, the CFTC…
Since the turn of the century, exchange traded funds (ETFs) have grown from an industry of less than $100 billion to a $2 trillion behemoth. And as virtual currencies such as Bitcoin continue to permeate the mainstream — Overstock.com now accepts payment in Bitcoin, as do thousands of other online…
Happy New Year! With the bottles popped and the confetti descended, we take a look at the some of the most important legal and regulatory developments in the U.S. this past year. Federal Money Transmitter Law The most prolific regulatory actor in 2014 was by far the Financial Crimes Enforcement…