On July 10, 2019, the SEC qualified the first-ever offering of digital tokens under Regulation A+. Blockstack PBC sought to offer up to 180,333,333 “Stacks Tokens” in the following ways: (1) 78,333,333 Stacks Tokens at a discounted price of US $0.12 per token (up to a maximum of US $3,000 per holder)…
On June 21, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut certified a class of plaintiffs alleging violations of the Exchange Act and the Connecticut Uniform Securities Act in connection with their investments in products of GAW Miners, LLC, and ZenMiner, LLC. GAW Miners and ZenMiner “purchase[d] virtual…
On June 4, 2019, the SEC filed an enforcement action in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against Kik Interactive, Inc. (“Kik”) for violation of Sections 5(a) and 5(c) of the Securities Act for the sale of unregistered securities. The SEC seeks a permanent injunction,…
On Apr. 11, 2019, the plan d’action pour la croissance et la transformation des entreprises (Action Plan for Business Growth and Transformation act), also known as Loi PACTE, has introduced in French law the possibility for issuers of initial coin offering (ICOs) to apply for an optional visa from the…
Last week, Northeast Bank became the fourth banking organization in two years to eliminate its holding company. Previously, ZB, N.A. (now Zions Bancorporation, N.A.) (September 2018), BancorpSouth Bank (October 2017), and Bank of the Ozarks (June 2017) also eliminated their holding companies. All of the transactions were motivated, at least…
On May 9, 2019, Commissioner Hester Peirce of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) expressed concern that the SEC is moving too slowly in providing meaningful guidance for the digital token industry. Commissioner Peirce acknowledged that the SEC has provided some direction to date by: (1) issuing the DAO…
Goodwin will be out in full force at Consensus 2019 taking place next week in New York. We are sponsoring an informative all-female panel featuring Goodwin Partner Meghan Spillane and Counsel Tami Goldberg, as well as guest speakers from Coinbase and the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance, discussing engaging with the…
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…
On April 24, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia granted in part and denied in part a motion to dismiss a complaint alleging that the controlling shareholders of FLiK, a company designed to create an online distribution platform for entertainment projects, violated Sections 12(a) and…
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…