Earlier today, Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein announced that the President issued an executive order establishing a new Task Force on Market Integrity and Consumer Fraud, comprised of a number of divisions of the Department of Justice (DOJ), including the FBI and various United States Attorney’s Offices as designated…
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) finally provided some good news, and guidance, regarding permissible token sales. On June 14, 2018, William Hinman, Director of the SEC Division of Corporation Finance, speaking at the Yahoo Finance All Markets Summit: Crypto, shared remarks that filled in some gaps surrounding the security…
This past week was a busy one for state securities regulators, the CFTC and the SEC as they continue their focus on rooting out fraud from the digital currency space and crypto- and blockchain-based ventures. Noteworthy developments included (1) the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) announcing a “cryptosweep” –…
Goodwin is a proud sponsor of Consensus 2018, taking place May 14-16, 2018 at the Hilton Midtown in New York. For more information on the conference, visit CoinDesk’s show website. We will have a booth setup in the exhibit hall for the duration of the conference and members from our team will…
In the fall of 2017, the United States Department of Justice (“DOJ”) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) each filed actions against Maksim Zaslavskiy for securities fraud in connection with two token offerings, through which he promised token purchasers profits from his companies’ investments in real estate and diamonds. …
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last week sued Longfin Corp., a financial technology company that recently entered the cryptocurrency space, as well as Longfin’s CEO and three others affiliated with the company. The complaint, filed in federal court in Manhattan, was unsealed on April 6, 2018, when the SEC…
On Wednesday, March 28th, a group from Goodwin’s Digital Currency + Blockchain Technology practice participated in the Boston Bar Association’s Forum on Blockchain & Cryptocurrency. The forum brought together attorneys and industry professionals for panel discussions on securities offerings and capital raising, financial services regulation, intellectual property, and securities law…
This writer received three cold emails in two weeks asking for legal help around operating a Bitcoin ATM (BTM).[1] Each groundbreaker asked: “What are the legal requirements for an operator putting a BTM in, say, a coffee shop?” Lawyers and businessmen and women work on the assumption that for every one person who…
While the rise of cryptocurrencies has highlighted the usefulness of blockchain technology, involving the creation of decentralized, electronic ledgers to track transactions, this technology is applicable to other fields, including financial services and pharmaceuticals. Contemporaneously, the number of pending US patent applications that incorporate blockchain technology has increased dramatically. But…
On February 7, 2018, the New York State Department of Financial Services (NY DFS) issued guidance to all virtual currency businesses that maintain a “BitLicense” or that are chartered as a limited purpose trust company under New York Banking Law (collectively, VC Entities), including those that maintain a money transmitter…