Podcast: Is Cryptocurrency a Security (like an orange grove)?
On August 5, 2025, the Securities and Exchange Commission Division of Corporation Finance released a statement on liquid staking as a follow-on to its May 29, 2025, protocol staking statement. The liquid staking statement...more
The Staff provides the market with additional crypto clarity, holding that liquid staking does not qualify as a security under the Howey test....more
Key Takeaways - - In a recently published statement, the Division of Corporation Finance clarified that certain standard liquid staking activities involving crypto assets—including the issuance and redemption of Staking...more
On August 5, 2025, the staff (the “Staff”) of the Division of Corporation Finance (the “Division”) issued new guidance regarding certain Protocol Staking (defined below) activities. This guidance builds on a May 2025 Staff...more
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Division of Corporation Finance issued a staff statement expressing its views that certain liquid staking activities fall outside the federal securities laws....more
Dapper Labs was founded in 2018 shortly after the debut of its first NFT collection, “CryptoKitties,” which was so successful it created a bottleneck of transactions on the decentralized Ethereum Network. Seeking faster...more
In order to provide an overview for busy in-house counsel and compliance professionals, we summarize below some of the most important SEC enforcement developments from the past month, with links to primary resources....more
The New Hampshire District Court recently granted summary judgment in favor of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in SEC v. LBRY, Inc., concluding that the native token of the blockchain protocol and network...more
It's no secret that cryptocurrency markets and the larger digital assets economy have been roiled by recent instability, resulting in discussions about how regulatory initiatives, rising inflationary pressure, and public...more
“Decentralization” refers to the movement of supervision and decision-making away from a single central actor, and toward a dispersed network of actors. Such networks are facilitated by the use of blockchain technology and...more
On May 3, 2022, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced the expansion of its newly styled Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit (Unit) (formerly known as the Cyber Unit), housed within its Division of...more
Background: Crypto Catch 22 - Followers of the SEC’s efforts to regulate digital tokens will recall former SEC Corp Fin Director William Hinman’s speech at the June 14, 2018 Yahoo Finance Conference in which he introduced...more
“Decentralization” is a concept that has consistently vexed the entire blockchain-enabled ecosystem in the U.S., including its counsel and regulators, wherein a lack of clarity on the exact definition of decentralization has...more