Podcast: Is Cryptocurrency a Security (like an orange grove)?
On April 25, purchasers of Nike non-fungible tokens (NFTs) filed a class action complaint in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York against the sportswear giant alleging that the December 2024 shutdown of...more
The decision, which addresses a broad range of market activity by Coinbase relating to 13 third-party tokens, could have significant implications for market participants. On March 27, 2024, Judge Katherine Failla of the US...more
Last year, the Court in SEC v. Terraform Labs suggested, by denying the defendants’ motion to dismiss, that the sale of a digital asset to the public on a secondary market may constitute a security. Now, the Court has...more
A recent enforcement action from the Fort Worth Regional Office of the SEC reminds one of the agency's investor-protection mission and continued focus on those who deceive retail investors in the private offer and sale of...more
A recent action brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) against a former Coinbase employee for insider trading in crypto tokens (the “Wahi Action”) highlights the lack of certainty surrounding the...more
On April 13, 2022, the Texas State Securities Board and Alabama Securities Commission issued separate emergency cease and desist orders (C&Ds) against Sand Vegas Casino Club and its two co-founders (Respondents). The C&Ds...more
Given that the charged entity’s name included “DeFi,” there was an inevitable flurry of news around last week’s SEC action against DeFi Money Market (“DMM”), including that it was the “first” enforcement action involving...more
On January 8, 2021, Judge Richard Seeborg of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California issued an Order denying a motion to dismiss in S.E.C. v. NAC Foundation, LLC, et al. The U.S. Securities &...more
On June 4, 2019, the SEC sued Kik Interactive Inc. (“Kik”), a privately held Canadian company, in the Southern District of New York, alleging that Kik’s offer and sale of $100 million worth of Kin tokens in 2017 constituted...more
In early March, the Manhattan U.S. Attorney unsealed indictments against the leaders of the Bulgarian-based “purported” cryptocurrency “OneCoin” on wire fraud, money laundering and federal securities fraud charges relating to...more
Digital token issuers caught up in the onslaught of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigations finally received some encouraging news regarding their token sales’ exposure to federal securities laws. On Tuesday,...more
The Situation: Federal prosecutors have asserted that two cryptocurrencies sold in initial coin offerings ("ICOs") are "securities" for purposes of federal securities laws in a criminal indictment alleging fraud against the...more
On September 11, 2018, Judge Raymond J. Dearie of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York issued a new decision in U.S. v. Zaslavskiy, No. 1:17-cr-00647-RJD-RER, Dkt. No. 37 (E.D.N.Y. Sept. 11, 2018),...more
In what is believed to be the first criminal case examining whether so-called “initial coin offerings” (ICOs) are securities under U.S. law, on September 11, 2018, Judge Raymond J. Dearie of the U.S. District Court for the...more
U.S. District Judge Raymond Dearie of the Eastern District of New York has ruled that initial coin offerings (ICOs) may be subject to securities law. The ruling came in the court’s denial of defendant Maksim Zaslavkiy’s...more
The ICO boom in 2017 brings with it questions of jurisdiction and compliance, and a need for further guidance - The benefits of ICOs in raising capital, as well as in providing a marketing push for a new business model,...more