On June 17, 2025, the U.S. Senate passed the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act. If enacted, the bill would establish a comprehensive federal regulatory framework for stablecoins...more
6/25/2025
/ Banks ,
CFTC ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Federal Reserve ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
OCC ,
Popular ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Stablecoins ,
U.S. Treasury
Welcome to Wilson Sonsini’s Focus on Fintech newsletter. This quarterly newsletter provides ongoing analysis and commentary on regulatory developments impacting the fintech industry.
In this issue, our attorneys discuss...more
5/2/2025
/ Banking Sector ,
Consumer Protection Laws ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FinTech ,
Popular ,
Proposed Rules ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Securities Regulation
On April 10, 2025, the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance (Corp Fin) issued a statement expressing its views about the application of certain disclosure requirements under the federal securities laws to offerings and...more
The Division of Corporation Finance (Division) of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently issued two statements regarding whether certain tokens, or arrangements involving tokens, constitute “investment...more
In this latest issue of The Entrepreneurs Report, we’ve compiled a range of data on venture, convertible note, and SAFE financing transactions in which the firm was involved during 2024, with the objective of identifying...more
The lead of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) new Crypto Task Force (Task Force), Commissioner Hester Peirce, recently laid out principles for how the Task Force will approach regulation and provided a...more
In this issue of Wilson Sonsini's Focus on Fintech, our attorneys discuss updates and developments from federal regulators, including those related to artificial intelligence in financial markets, regulated securities...more
In this issue of Wilson Sonsini's Focus on Fintech, our attorneys discuss updates and developments from federal regulators, including those related to bank-fintech partnerships, cryptocurrency and virtual currency updates,...more
12/17/2024
/ Banking Sector ,
Banks ,
Blockchain ,
CFTC ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Federal Reserve ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FinCEN ,
FinTech ,
Popular ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
In this latest edition, our attorneys discuss updates and developments from federal regulators, including those related to the intersection of fintech and artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency and virtual currency updates,...more
Where will the fintech industry head in 2024? Our fintech and financial services partners make a few predictions below....more
1/16/2024
/ Artificial Intelligence ,
Banking Sector ,
CFTC ,
Cryptoassets ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Financial Transactions ,
FinTech ,
Machine Learning ,
Popular ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
On October 23, 2023, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (proposed rule) addressing “mixing transactions” that involve convertible...more
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently announced charges against and settlements with two NFT issuers for allegedly conducting illegally unregistered offers and sales of securities in the form of...more
A pair of recent rulings from the Southern District of New York (SDNY) have potentially increased confusion around the regulatory status of crypto asset regulation—but may also provide some interesting signs of what’s to...more
In this most recent issue, we discuss a number of federal banking agency updates, including the long-awaited Final Interagency Guidance on Third-Party Relationships and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s report on the...more
8/23/2023
/ Banking Sector ,
Banks ,
Cryptoassets ,
Cryptocurrency ,
FDIC ,
Federal Reserve ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FinTech ,
OCC ,
UK
More than two years after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) introduced a new class of “special purpose broker-dealers” authorized to custody crypto asset securities, the first special purpose broker-dealer...more
In this latest issue of the firm’s Focus on Fintech newsletter, our attorneys discuss the dissolution of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank and the increased scrutiny on banking activity, as well as a number of updates...more
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) released its Illicit Finance Risk Assessment of Decentralized Finance (Assessment). This Assessment, part of a broad regulatory scrutiny of entities that...more
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved a new form of “Cash Management” exemptive order under the Investment Company Act of 1940 (the 1940 Act) on April 3, 2023. The approved order allows the company that...more
The last few years had started to see a convergence between crypto and banking, with bitcoin appearing to rapidly grow mainstream. That momentum hit a wall with the spectacular crypto market failures of 2022, including the...more
2/7/2023
/ Banking Sector ,
Banks ,
Cryptoassets ,
Cryptocurrency ,
FDIC ,
Federal Reserve ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FinTech ,
OCC ,
Popular
In this latest issue of Wilson Sonsini's Focus on Fintech newsletter, we discuss the FTX bankruptcy and the increased federal regulatory scrutiny of crypto assets, and new rules and innovations in the payments...more
2/1/2023
/ Banking Sector ,
Banks ,
Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDCs) ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FinTech ,
OCC ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
U.S. Treasury ,
UK
The staff of the Division of Corporation Finance at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently provided guidance for public companies regarding disclosures pertaining to recent developments in crypto asset...more
Welcome to Wilson Sonsini’s Focus on Fintech newsletter. This quarterly newsletter provides ongoing analysis and commentary on regulatory developments impacting the fintech industry.
The third quarter of 2022 has been a...more
11/2/2022
/ Banking Sector ,
Banks ,
CFTC ,
Crypto Exchanges ,
Cryptoassets ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Financial Crimes ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FinCEN ,
FinTech ,
Payment Systems
In an unprecedented enforcement action, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) brought insider trading charges against a former Coinbase manager and two others related to buying 25 tokens ahead of Coinbase's...more
The global NFT (non-fungible token) market now is worth dozens of billions of dollars annually. Innovators and early adopters, marketplaces, and sellers, are all eager to join this market but may have questions about how to...more
5/24/2022
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Blockchain ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Economic Sanctions ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Markets ,
Money Laundering ,
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) ,
Popular ,
Virtual Currency
President Biden launched an effort to establish a federal digital assets policy strategy and coordinate the related work of federal regulators by signing the Executive Order on Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital...more
3/16/2022
/ Biden Administration ,
Bitcoin ,
Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDCs) ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Executive Orders ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Financial Transactions ,
Investor Protection ,
Investors