Throughout a tumultuous 2022, the digital currency and blockchain space saw a number of significant investigation, litigation, and enforcement matters as regulators continue their laser focus on the industry. Our 2022 Year in Review, authored by members of Goodwin’s leading Digital Currency and Blockchain team, recaps the most significant litigation…
Please note, this is a summary to the article previously published on PYMNTS.com. Cryptocurrency crimes are under the microscope as the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) steps up enforcement efforts with the formation of the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET), according to a press release on Thursday (Oct. 7). The…
The SEC, in one of the Commission’s final acts under the leadership of Chair Jay Clayton, approved enforcement action aimed at Ripple Labs, Inc. (“Ripple”) and two of its executives, Brad Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen. The SEC filed its complaint on December 22, 2020 in the Southern District of New…
In early November 2020, the staff of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) Division of Investment Management (“IM Division”), in consultation with the SEC’s “FinHub” staff, issued a statement in response to a No-Action Letter from the Wyoming Division of Banking purporting to provide interpretive guidance on both Wyoming…
***This article was originally published in CoinDesk and can be found here – https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2020/11/24/bitmex-founders-charges-highlight-risks-for-defi In October, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed enforcement actions against the entities and individuals that own and operate the Bitcoin Mercantile Exchange (BitMEX), a trading platform for cryptocurrency…
On June 24, 2020, New York’s Department of Financial Services (“DFS”) announced a series of steps it is taking to promote development and opportunities in the virtual currency space. These actions would build upon New York’s “BitLicense,” a virtual currency licensing regime implemented in 2015 that establishes minimum standards for…
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…
Delaware amended the Delaware General Corporation Law (DGCL) and the Delaware Limited Liability Company Act (DLLCA) in 2017 and 2018, respectively, to permit corporations and limited liability companies to represent capital stock, record equity transactions, and communicate with equity holders via blockchain-based distributed ledgers. (S. 69, 149th Gen. Assembly, Del….
On April 24, 2019, the New York Attorney General filed a petition in New York state court, alleging that Bitfinex (i.e., iFinex, Inc., BFXNA Inc., and BFXWW Inc.) and Tether (i.e., Tether Holdings Limited, Tether Operations Limited, Tether Limited, and Tether International Limited) hid a loss of more than US…
Bittrex, Inc. (“Bittrex”) is a US-based company that owns and operates one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges. Bittrex’s digital asset exchange platform allows approximately 1.67 million global users to trade over 200 cryptocurrencies. Bittrex offers two separate platforms, Bittrex and Bittrex International. The former is designed for use by…