In June 2022, Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) introduced the Responsible Financial Innovation Act (the "Bill"), one of most comprehensive responses by Congress to date with respect to digital...more
California's new Digital Financial Asset Law ("DFAL") will impose a variety of regulatory requirements on digital asset companies and cryptocurrency exchanges. Governor Newsom is expected to sign the DFAL into law, and new...more
In this latest White Paper on our Bill analysis, we underscore headline proposals in the Lummis-Gillibrand Responsible Financial Innovation Act (the “Bill”) regarding consumer protection standards (Title V) and cybersecurity...more
In Short -
The Situation: Following the release of the Responsible Financial Innovation Act (the "Lummis-Gillibrand Bill"), four senators on the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry released their own...more
In this latest White Paper on our Bill analysis, we underscore headline proposals in the Lummis-Gillibrand Responsible Financial Innovation Act (the "Bill") regarding the issuance and regulation of a "payment stablecoin,"...more
On June 7, 2022, U.S. Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) introduced the Responsible Financial Innovation Act (the "Bill"), which proposes a regulatory framework for digital assets across nine titles...more
Jones Day Financial Markets partner Mark Rasmussen explains how real-life regulations could cross over into the rapidly expanding metaverse space. He talks about the metaverse's current uses and potential advancements, and...more
California's governor issued an executive order requiring state agencies, led by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, to create a "transparent" regulatory framework for blockchain technologies and digital...more
5/11/2022
/ Bitcoin ,
Blockchain ,
California ,
California Consumer Financial Protection Law (CCFPL) ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Digital Currency ,
Executive Orders ,
Financial Instruments ,
Financial Markets ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Financial Transactions ,
Framework Agreement ,
Investment Opportunities ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Transparency Directive ,
Virtual Currency
Introduction -
Cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin, is a decentralized and exclusively virtual currency that is secured through cryptography. Companies using or investing in cryptocurrency face various risks, such as market...more
President Biden's executive order calls for "whole-of-government" approach to studying risks and harnessing potential benefits of digital asset technologies.
On Wednesday, March 9, 2022, President Biden signed a...more
3/11/2022
/ AML/CFT ,
Biden Administration ,
Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDCs) ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Financial Crimes ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Financial Transactions ,
Investor Protection ,
Regulatory Agenda
The digital asset industry has now met the regulatory state. Those interested in building digital asset businesses that operate in the United States thus need to be aware of a vital tool for resisting regulatory overreach by...more
12/13/2021
/ Bitcoin ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Financial Instruments ,
Financial Markets ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Financial Transactions ,
Investment Products ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Regulatory Standards ,
Virtual Currency
The interagency "policy sprints" are designed to give banks guidance on how to navigate crypto-assets moving forward.
On November 23, 2021, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Federal Deposit Insurance...more
On October 18, 2021, New York Attorney General Letitia James directed two virtual currency lending platforms to immediately cease their unregistered and allegedly unlawful activities in New York and sent letters to three...more
10/29/2021
/ Cryptocurrency ,
Decentralized Finance (DeFi) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Markets ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Lenders ,
New York ,
Regulatory Violations ,
Securities Transactions ,
Stablecoins ,
State Attorneys General ,
Virtual Currency
Jones Day's Chris Pace and Mark Rasmussen discuss the implications of the federal court's decision in United American Corp. v. Bitmain, Inc., which analyzed and ultimately rejected the first private party antitrust claim...more
Cryptocurrencies are quickly becoming part of the financial mainstream, with institutional and retail investors alike adding them to their portfolios in record numbers. State legislatures are trying to keep up with this...more
SEC Chairman Gary Gensler has left little doubt that his commission will closely monitor activity in the cryptoasset markets and the actions of decentralized finance, or DeFi platforms, as investor interest continues to grow....more
SEC Chairman Gary Gensler suggests SEC will aggressively police crypto assets and decentralized finance ("DeFi") platforms while seeking expanded authority to regulate these fast-growing industries....more
8/10/2021
/ Cryptoassets ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Decentralized Finance (DeFi) ,
Digital Assets ,
Gary Gensler ,
Initial Coin Offering (ICOs) ,
Policy Statement ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Token Sales ,
Unregistered Securities
The surging interest in cryptocurrency continues to raise new legal challenges for market participants and interested parties. This is largely uncharted territory, so there's comparatively little case law. However, a recent...more
The Situation: Non-fungible tokens are an emerging digital asset class that present a unique set of commercial, regulatory, and other legal considerations.
The Result: The current U.S. regulatory and legal framework is...more
5/14/2021
/ Art ,
Asset Class ,
Blockchain ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
FinCEN ,
FinTech ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) ,
Online Marketplace ,
Virtual Currency
The IRS recently clarified its position on the U.S. income tax treatment of a hard fork. A hard fork occurs when protocols on a blockchain change, causing a "fork" or splintering of the existing blockchain into two distinct...more
The Situation: On January 4, 2021, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency ("OCC") issued an Interpretive Letter permitting national banks and federal savings associations ("Banks") to participate in independent node...more
1/19/2021
/ Banking Sector ,
Cryptoassets ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FinCEN ,
Interpretive Letters ,
OCC ,
Popular ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Stablecoins
Federal court grants summary judgment to the SEC on its claim that sales of digital tokens constitute investment contracts under the Securities Act.
On September 30, 2020, U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein granted...more
The Situation: The requirement for a paper-based note for issuing securities under the German law has been an obstacle for the use of security tokens in Germany. With the release of a draft bill (the "Bill") permitting the...more
The Situation: While investigating a website for criminal activities, federal agents traced Bitcoin transactions and issued a subpoena to a virtual-currency exchange to identify customers of the site. Using that information,...more
8/12/2020
/ Bitcoin ,
Blockchain ,
Carpenter v US ,
Criminal Investigations ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Cyber Crimes ,
Fourth Amendment ,
Popular ,
Probable Cause ,
Search Warrant ,
Subpoenas ,
Virtual Currency
The OCC sees holding the cryptographic access keys to control and transfer cryptocurrency as an "electronic corollary" of banking's traditional safekeeping methods.
On July 22, 2020, the Office of the Comptroller of the...more