According to crypto platform Kraken, the aggregate market cap for all meme coins is over $70 billion. Five meme coins would be considered unicorns (market cap over $1 billion) if they were startups. Dogecoin’s market cap is...more
The SEC has released its Examination Priorities: Fiscal Year 2025 (“Examination Priorities”), which may be a useful roadmap to SEC-registered investment advisers, exchanges, and other entities subject to routine examination...more
Who may be interested: Investment Advisers, Registered Investment Companies - The SEC approved the creation and listing of eleven spot Bitcoin ETFs on January 10th. Several firms received approval to launch funds,...more
Under the helm of SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, the Securities and Exchange Commission has argued that many cryptocurrencies qualify as “securities” under federal law, and therefore fall within the SEC’s bailiwick....more
On June 22, 2023, the Investor Advisory Committee (“IAC”) of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC” or “Commission”) held a panel discussion regarding current challenges and potential improvements to the use of...more
On Wednesday, December 14, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) affirmatively voted to advance some major changes to U.S. stock-market rules, perhaps the biggest changes to such rules in nearly 20 years....more
Things change, at least sometimes. Take Crypto assets. They began as a way to “get off the grid.” Over time some came on to the grid as their popularity increased. Others stayed off....more
UK & European Financial Services M&A: Sector trends H2 2021 | H1 2022 — Brokers/Corporate Finance - Marginal improvement in investor sentiment for high-quality brokers, particularly across online brokerage, crypto trading...more
Cryptocurrency investors, who were already in the icy clutches of the so-called “crypto winter,” now have another reason to shiver. Insolvency issues are cropping up with some frequency among crypto companies, which is...more
On June 29, 2022, Grayscale Investments, LLC petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia for review of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s June 29, 2022 final order disapproving of an October...more
In April, we continued to see a steady pace in the seriousness and frequency of crypto enforcement actions by state and federal law enforcement. (See our March 2022 Crypto Enforcement Actions Roundup blog here where we...more
Here’s about as 2019 as we can get in the financial world (with a healthy dose of 1950s-era gender discrimination for good measure): a series of tweets from tech entrepreneur David Heinemeier Hansson alleging gender...more
It is official. Finally. On October 10, 2019, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) Chairman Heath Tarbert announced that he believes ether is a commodity and thus falls under the jurisdiction of the CFTC....more
On July 8, 2019, the staff of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) Division of Trading and Markets and the staff of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) issued a joint statement outlining...more
Hester Peirce Remarks at Cato Institute Conference - Hester Peirce made remarks at the Cato Institute’s Fintech Unbound conference on September 12, 2018. Commissioner Peirce commented that securities regulators are too risk...more
On July 18, 2018, the SEC ramped up its oversight of alternative trading systems (“ATSs”) by adopting a series of rule amendments imposing public disclosure requirements on ATSs that trade NMS (“National Market System”)...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
The SEC published a report that provides private fund industry statistics and trends, reflecting aggregated data reported by private fund advisers on Form ADV and Form PF. Most of the data in the more than 50 separate tables...more
Below is a summary of recent investment management developments that affect registered investment companies, private equity funds, hedge funds, investment advisers, and others in the investment management industry. Schwab...more
The SEC recently published myriad questions about the listing, trading, and marketing (especially to retail investors) of "new, novel, or complex" exchange-traded products (ETPs). Such ETPs include exchange-traded funds...more
The SEC recently published two rule proposals to address concerns over the Commission’s ability to gauge and monitor any risks that the asset management industry poses to the financial system and investors. This includes the...more