In March 2022, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission proposed rules that would greatly expand the Exchange Act definition of “dealer” and essentially kill the distinction between dealers and traders long-recognized by the SEC. The likely outcome is that most proprietary trading firms will need to register with the SEC as…
Germany has introduced a new regulation on crypto fund units (Verordnung über Kryptofondsanteile – KryptoFAV), that allows fund managers to issue fund units on an electronic instead of a physical basis. The new rules come less than one year after the Fund Location Act (Fondsstandortgesetz) allowed institutional investors to invest…
Goodwin Partners, Kyle Tayman, Andrew Kim, and Collin Grier recently wrote an article for Law360 regarding CFPB’s entry into the cryptocurrency arena. Read more here.
Digital Currency Perspectives author, Nick Losurdo, recently posted on Goodwin’s FinReg blog about the “death” of the distinction between dealer and trader. Read more here.
People are often the most valuable asset for growing technology companies, and attracting and retaining top talent is all-the-more important when dealing with emerging technologies like blockchain and cryptocurrencies. For most private companies, the path for creating meaningful incentives for service providers is well-trodden—they can use a traditional equity incentive…
On October 8, 2020, the Attorney General’s Cyber Digital Task Force announced the release of a publication entitled Cryptocurrency: An Enforcement Framework (the “Enforcement Framework”). The Enforcement Framework describes the DOJ’s three areas of focus for illicit activity involving cryptocurrency: (1) financial transactions associated with the commission of crimes; (2)…
Never one to hold back, especially when it comes to crypto and blockchain matters, SEC Commissioner Peirce recently explained her views on the SEC’s settlement with Telegram and the agency’s approach to regulating the crypto and blockchain ecosphere generally. Simply put, Peirce disagreed with the Telegram settlement. In her words:…
On July 22, 2020, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued an interpretive letter confirming that national banks and federal savings associations (banks) may provide cryptocurrency custody services to customers. The conclusion that banks may provide such services is not surprising, because banks have long provided safekeeping…
U.S. broker-dealer activity involving digital assets could implicate various FINRA rules in addition to federal and state securities laws and SEC rules. As most readers likely know by now, whether this activity is of interest to or subject to the jurisdiction of U.S. securities regulators (both federal and state) largely…
2019 was a year of significant regulatory and legal developments in digital currency + blockchain. The SEC issued its most comprehensive guidance to date with its Framework for “Investment Contract” Analysis of Digital Assets, followed that up with three “no action” letters for projects that in its view complied with…