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
In its recent Request for Comment on Certain Information Providers Acting as Investment Advisers (the Request for Comment), the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) asks whether innovative investment indices, model...more
Newly proposed environmental, social, and governance (ESG)-related amendments to Form ADV under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (Advisers Act) underscore the need for federally regulated investment advisers to fully...more
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 Rule Proposal Would Significantly Broaden the Scope of Systems Required to Register as an Exchange or an ATS The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued a rule proposal (the Proposal) that would...more
The Rule Proposal Would Clarify Which Market Participants Are Engaged in Buying and Selling Securities for Their Own Account "as Part of a Regular Business" and Are Subject to Dealer Registration Requirements....more
The Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") recently won a high-profile victory when a federal court held that there is a substantial likelihood that the SEC will prevail at trial in proving that "Grams"—the digital asset...more
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s (“SEC”) mission has three principal components: investor protection; maintaining fair, orderly and efficient markets; and facilitating capital formation.2 The SEC’s regulation of...more
Until September 30, 2019, Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) enforcement actions in the crypto industry conveyed a consistent message: most crypto is a security, and if a token issuer does not follow the registration...more
10/18/2019
/ Blockchain ,
Crypto Exchanges ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) ,
Penalties ,
Registration Requirement ,
Regulation A ,
Regulation D ,
Securities Act of 1933 ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Exchange Act ,
Securities Regulation ,
Securities Violations ,
Settlement Offer ,
Token Sales
This white paper discusses considerations related to conducting a token offering under Regulation A under the Securities Act of 1933 (the “Securities Act”). The benefit of this strategy is that it can allow broad...more
10/2/2019
/ Blockchain ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) ,
Howey ,
Initial Coin Offering (ICOs) ,
Initial Public Offering (IPO) ,
Offering Statements ,
Public Offerings ,
Regulation A ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Securities Act of 1933 ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Token Sales ,
White Papers
Happy New Year from all of us in the WSGR Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Practice Group! The industry learned a lot about the regulation of digital assets in 2018, and we published some of our observations about those...more
On the Friday before Thanksgiving, the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") and its staff ("Staff") took a coordinated set of actions that should help further clarify its views on the application of the federal...more
In an important step, the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") has released a cease-and-desist order against Zachary Coburn, the founder of EtherDelta, a well-known online platform for trading Ether and ERC20-based...more
In a recent article, we discussed why the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and its staff (the “Staff”) continue to think most cryptocurrencies and other crypto assets (“tokens”) are securities at the time they are...more
There apparently has been significant shock and surprise over recent reports that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued a large number of subpoenas to initial coin offering (ICO) issuers and to ICO...more
Over the last few months, there has been fairly wide-spread recognition that most offerings in the United States of tokens and of Simple Agreements for Future Tokens (SAFTs) are securities offerings.1 As a result, most U.S....more
Initial coin offerings (ICOs), token pre-sales, and similar sales of blockchain-based coins and tokens are quickly becoming an important fundraising option, and an important method of attempting to seed a token-based platform...more
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati is pleased to present the October 2017 issue of the WSGR Fintech Update. This latest edition features an article discussing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's new "Cyber Unit"...more
On July 26, 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued an investigative report concluding that certain tokens (or coins) offered and sold by The DAO, a virtual organization, were securities under the Securities...more
In recent months, a variety of companies have considered "initial coin offerings" (ICOs) as a way to generate money for their businesses. Companies considering ICOs should be aware that, depending on the structure of the...more