News & Analysis as of July 24, 2025

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Virtual Currency (aka Digital Currency or Digital Money) is a type of currency or medium of exchange that is not issued by any government nor guaranteed by a government currency. Despite lacking legal tender status, Virtual Currency is still traded and exchanged in some environments, typically online environments or communities. Bitcoin is the most well-known form of Virtual Currency. less -

SEC Declares Meme Coins Are Not “Securities” In New Statement

A&O Shearman on 3/12/2025

On February 27, 2025, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) issued a statement to provide clarity on the application of federal securities laws to crypto assets by declaring that “meme coins” do not fall under...more

First Stand-Alone Crypto Tax Fraud Case Leads to Guilty Plea

Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP on 10/24/2024

On September 12, 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced that Frank Richard Ahlgren III pleaded guilty to filing a false tax return underreporting gains from selling $3.7 million in Bitcoin. As we discussed...more

Blockchain+ Bi-Weekly - August 2023 #2

Polsinelli on 8/24/2023

The Blockchain Bi-Weekly presented by the Polsinelli Blockchain+ team is a rundown of some of the key stories in the Web3, blockchain and crypto ecosystems curated by our attorneys navigating the intersections of code, smart...more

Ripple and the SEC Both Claim Wins in Split Court Decision

The Volkov Law Group on 7/27/2023

On July 13, 2022, Judge Analisa Torres issued her long awaited ruling on the summary judgment motions in the SEC’s case against Ripple Labs, Inc. (“Ripple”). The 34-page order provided a win for both the SEC and for Ripple...more

Digital Asset SEC Timeline - March 2023

Perkins Coie on 3/15/2023

The Digital Asset SEC Timeline serves as an interactive compilation of select SEC guidance, enforcement actions, and speeches relating to the application of the federal securities laws to digital assets. Beginning with the...more

Market Actors Integrate Cryptocurrency into Payment and Investment Products, More NFTs Launched, SEC Staff Issues Crypto...

BakerHostetler on 5/17/2021

Market Actors Continue to Integrate Cryptocurrency into Payment Systems - According to a press release this week, California-based Silvergate Bank announced that it will become the issuer of Diem USD, a new cryptocurrency...more

What to Make of SEC Leniency in Block.one ICO Settlement?

Farrell Fritz, P.C. on 12/2/2019

On September 30, 2019, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced that blockchain developer Block.one had agreed to pay a $24 million fine to settle charges that it had engaged in an unregistered offering of securities...more

The SEC’s Pair of Settled Cryptocurrency Enforcement Actions

Burr & Forman on 9/12/2018

On September 11, the SEC announced a pair of settled cryptocurrency enforcement actions. The first was against an unregistered digital-asset hedge fund. The second shut down an “ICO Superstore” as an unregistered...more

Your Daily Dose of Financial News

Robins Kaplan LLP on 8/21/2018

Google is facing a federal lawsuit in San Francisco over last week’s AP investigation that showed that the search giant “was sill tracking iPhone and Android device users, even if they turned off the ‘Location History’...more

El IRS está pendiente al Cripto

Foodman CPAs & Advisors on 7/16/2018

El Jefe de Investigación Criminal del IRS, Don Fort, declaró recientemente: "Es posible utilizar Bitcoin y otras Criptomonedas de la misma manera que las cuentas bancarias extranjeras para facilitar la evasión de impuestos"....more

The SEC Targets ICOs for Enforcement

The Volkov Law Group on 3/12/2018

I am always amazed at how “business” entrepreneurs ignore enforcement risks in the face of specific warnings from regulators. The SEC and the CFTC have made it clear to the emerging initial coin offering (ICO) and...more

Massachusetts’ First ICO Enforcement Action Offers Important Lessons for Offshore ICOs

Farrell Fritz, P.C. on 2/5/2018

Last month, Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Galvin made good on his promise to conduct an exam sweep of ICOs in Massachusetts. On January 17, the Enforcement Section of the Massachusetts Securities...more

Business Litigation Alert: "SEC Cracking Down on Cryptocurrency Scams"

Porter Hedges LLP on 2/5/2018

Cryptocurrency (e.g. Bitcoin) seems to be in the news on practically a daily basis, with people racing to get in on the latest investment trend and companies investigating how to best incorporate cryptocurrency and block...more

SEC and CFTC Issue Joint Statement on Virtual Currency Enforcement Actions

Ballard Spahr LLP on 1/22/2018

The following joint statement was issued this last week from the Enforcement Directors of the Securities Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission...more

FINRA Prioritizes Cryptocurrency Regulation in 2018

Nossaman LLP on 1/22/2018

Last week, I posted a blog about the SEC’s increased focus on cryptocurrency and ICOs in the coming year. It looks like that scrutiny will not be limited to the SEC. In its 2018 Annual Regulatory and Examination Priorities...more

SEC Cyber Unit Increases Efforts to Regulate Crypto-Currency

Nossaman LLP on 1/10/2018

Based on how 2017 ended, entities and individuals in the crypto-currency markets should expect increased scrutiny from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) in 2018. The SEC’s Cyber Unit commenced its...more

The SEC and Plaintiffs’ Class Action Attorneys Are Targeting Initial Coin Offerings

Fenwick & West LLP on 1/4/2018

Issuers and other professionals participating in Initial Coin Offerings — widely known as ICOs — are facing the increasing threat of both U.S. Securities Exchange Commission enforcement actions and private class action suits...more

Wrangling the Wild West: SEC Steps in to Regulate Initial Coin Offerings

Cohen & Gresser LLP on 9/21/2017

First, it was digital currencies like bitcoin. Then, it was distributed ledger technologies like blockchain. Now, another potentially groundbreaking innovation from this same community of technologists has vaulted to the...more

Your Daily Dose of Financial News

Robins Kaplan LLP on 1/4/2017

Lynn Tilton’s very public spat with the SEC over the agency’s in-house court system may be heading to the Supreme Court, thanks in part to a recent 10th Circuit opinion last week that created a Circuit split over the...more

Your daily dose of financial news The Brief – 3.29.16

Robins Kaplan LLP on 3/29/2016

Major news for the extended Blackstone & private equity family yesterday, as federal authorities arrested Wall Street exec Andrew Caspersen on charges of securities and wire fraud in what they’re labeling a “’brazen’ scheme...more

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