On March 13, 2025, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) issued Letter 25-05, withdrawing controversial and much-criticized Staff Letter 21-19 (“SEF Registration Advisory”), which was issued September 29, 2021...more
On March 11, 2025 at the 50th Annual International Futures Industry (“FIA”) Conference, Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) Acting Chairman Caroline Pham delivered a ground-breaking keynote covering administrative...more
3/21/2025
/ Capital Markets ,
CFTC ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Derivatives ,
Digital Assets ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Penalties ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Swaps
On February 25th, 2025, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (“CFTC”) Division of Enforcement (“Division”) issued a long-awaited advisory (the “Advisory”) regarding its evaluation of how a company’s or individual’s...more
3/11/2025
/ CFTC ,
Compliance ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Enforcement Priorities ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Fraud ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Risk Management ,
Securities Fraud ,
Self-Reporting ,
White Collar Crimes
The Federal U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois entered an Order granting summary judgement for the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission on July 1, 2024 and ordered $83 million in restitution and...more
On March 26, 2024, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) filed a complaint (the “Complaint”) in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (“SDNY”) for injunctive and other relief against...more
4/8/2024
/ BSA/AML ,
CFTC ,
Commodities ,
Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) ,
Crypto Exchanges ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Futures Commission Merchants (FCMs) ,
Popular ,
Statutory Violations ,
Trading Platforms
On December 14, 2023, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) and Department of Justice (“DOJ”) Fraud Section announced the settlement of insider trading fraud charges and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”)...more
The CFTC has announced three enforcement actions this month that further cement the CFTC’s jurisdiction over the decentralized finance space (“DeFi”). Back in 2022, the CFTC filed its first DeFi cases, including the...more
On August 29, 2023, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas entered a consent order ("Order") and imposed sanctions on Barelt Media and its owner Ryan Masten for operating an unregistered commodity trading...more
Two settled enforcement actions in April 2023 indicate that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) is expecting increased swaps disclosure by swap dealers under the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 and applicable CFTC...more
On May 1, 2023, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) seized control of First Republic Bank (“First Republic”) and then, as receiver of First Republic, entered into a purchase and assumption agreement (“P&A”)...more
On March 27, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”), the U.S. derivatives regulator, charged three Binance entities (collectively “Binance”) and its founder and chief compliance officer (“CCO”) with numerous...more
4/7/2023
/ CFTC ,
Commodities ,
Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) ,
Crypto Exchanges ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Derivatives ,
Digital Assets ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Futures Commission Merchants (FCMs) ,
Statutory Violations ,
Trading Platforms
Many of the transactions involving qualified financial contracts (“QFC”) with Silicon Valley Bank (“SVB”) and Signature Bank constitute Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) jurisdictional transactions that may be...more
3/15/2023
/ CFTC ,
Commodities ,
Deposit Accounts ,
Deposit Insurance ,
Depository Institutions ,
Derivatives ,
Enforcement Actions ,
FDIC ,
Financial Institutions ,
Futures ,
Insolvency ,
Qualified Financial Contracts (QFC) ,
Receivership ,
Silicon Valley ,
Swaps
Churchill is credited with saying “Never let a good crisis go to waste” at the end of WWII in reference to lessons learned in rebuilding the post-war world. The rolling collapse in crypto and digital assets’ markets, and...more
On December 13, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (the “U.S. Attorney’s Office”), the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the...more
12/16/2022
/ Campaign Contributions ,
CFTC ,
Criminal Investigations ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Cryptoassets ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Equity Investors ,
Extradition ,
Money Laundering ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Fraud ,
Trading Platforms ,
Wire Fraud
On October 21, Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) Commissioner Caroline D. Pham issued a concurring statement to the CFTC’s amended complaint originally filed on April 27, 2022 in the U.S. District Court for the...more
11/3/2022
/ CFTC ,
Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) ,
Derivatives ,
Disclosure ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Fraud ,
Market Manipulation ,
Over The Counter Derivatives (OTC) ,
Regulatory Violations ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Security-Based Swaps ,
Swaps
On September 26, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) published an order settling charges against Asset Risk Management, LLC (“ARM”), a registered commodity trading advisor (“CTA”) headquartered in Houston,...more
10/14/2022
/ CFTC ,
Commodities ,
Commodity Trading Advisors (CTAs) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Failure to Comply ,
Market Participants ,
Registration Requirement ,
Sanctions ,
Swap Execution Facilities ,
Swap Market ,
Swaps
On September 27, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) issued orders to settle charges against 11 major U.S. and international financial institutions and their swap dealer (“SD”) and futures commission merchant...more
On September 22, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) asserted its jurisdiction over a decentralized autonomous organization (“DAO”) and its founders, signaling for the industry that even an unincorporated...more
9/30/2022
/ Blockchain ,
CFTC ,
Commodities ,
Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) ,
Decentralized Finance (DeFi) ,
Designated Contract Markets (DCMs) ,
Digital Assets ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Futures Commission Merchants (FCMs) ,
Regulatory Violations ,
Token Sales
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) has two levels of jurisdiction under the Commodity Exchange Act (“CEA”).
First, there is an exclusive (or regulatory) jurisdiction over “derivatives” on “commodities,”...more
7/29/2022
/ CFTC ,
Commodities ,
Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Markets ,
FinTech ,
Investment Fraud ,
Market Manipulation ,
Price Manipulation ,
Pump and Dump ,
Regulatory Authority ,
Statutory Violations
Once in a while, a Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) enforcement action confirms market participants’ worst fears that the CFTC is prepared to, and is able to, find violations of the Commodity Exchange Act (“CEA”)...more
In last week's Cabinet News and Views, we examined the U.S. regulators' approach to the digital asset space, with a focus on the assertion of jurisdiction by the CFTC, the SEC, prudential regulators, state executive and...more
7/18/2022
/ Bitcoin ,
Blockchain ,
CFTC ,
Crypto Exchanges ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Digital Currency ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Fraud ,
Financial Markets ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Transactions ,
Investment Opportunities ,
Market Manipulation ,
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) ,
Popular ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Securities Regulation ,
Token Sales ,
Trading Platforms
On June 24, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) sanctioned Starberry Limited, a Cyprus entity, for operating in the U.S. as an unregistered futures commission merchant (“FCM”) and ordered it to pay $1.3 million...more