Blockchain Revolution, a half-day discussion hosted by Robertson Stephens and Bloomberg L.P., will take place on Wednesday, June 22, 2016 in San Francisco, CA. The program will feature keynote speakers Don & Alex Tapscott, authors of the new book, Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin is Changing Money, Business,…
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 June 2, 2016, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) issued a discussion paper seeking feedback from Fintech companies and financial institutions on the possible use of blockchain technology in securities markets, including the potential benefits, challenges and risks involved. The ESMA indicated that the responses will help it…
Bitcoin was born on November 2008 when an anonymous user named “Satoshi Nakamoto” published a post on a cryptography blog linking to a paper the user had written about a decentralized peer-to-peer electronic cash system. After helping establish the fledging currency, the same user disappeared from the bitcoin world with…
Consensus 2016, the second annual blockchain technology summit, was held in New York last week. Presented by CoinDesk and Digital Currency Group in collaboration with Coin Center, the conference was a meet-up for bitcoin purists, blockchain advocates, venture capitalists, bankers, academics, companies, and consumers who see the potential for big…
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”…
Digital currencies like Bitcoin seem tailor made for social peer-to-peer payment applications. Transactions denominated in or convertible to digital currency could be withdrawn and transmitted by users at virtually no cost—only a small transaction fee. Digital currency can then be converted using a myriad of exchanges, which navigate banking regimes….
On February 26, 2016, Logos Capital Fund, LLP (“Logos”) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) a Form D Notice of Exempt Offering of Securities. As its Form D indicates, Logos is soliciting investments of at least $25,000 for its pooled investment fund. Logos claims an exemption from publicly…
The 2016 Digital Currency and Blockchain Technology National Institute will take place on April 1, 2016, in Washington, DC. This special program is dedicated to in-depth analysis of the emerging legal issues and the latest legal events concerning digital currencies, like Bitcoin, and blockchain technology. It will be an informative…
As discussed in a previous post, several states are in various stages of implementing regulations related to digital currency. Below is an updated summary of the actions currently underway. New York Since the final version of New York’s BitLicense was announced in June 2015, surprisingly only a single BitLicense has…