On Aug. 29, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (Court) vacated the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (Commission)’s denial of Grayscale Investments, LLC (Grayscale)’s application for a spot bitcoin exchanged-traded product (ETP). The unanimous three-judge panel found the Commission’s denial arbitrary and capricious, as it failed to justify
On June 2, 2022, the New York Senate passed Senate Bill S6486D (the Bill), which would amend the state’s environmental conservation law and set forth a two-year moratorium on certain cryptocurrency mining operations in the state of New York. The Bill passed the New York Assembly earlier in 2022 and now awaits Gov. Kathy Hochul’s
This practice note covers recent market trends in distributed ledger/Blockchain capital funding and regulation. It focuses on the legal framework for capital formation using distributed ledger/Blockchain technology to enable offerings of coins, tokens, and other rights (digital assets) and developments over the past few years.
On Sept. 25, 2020, the SEC issued a No-Action Letter to FINRA, in response to a previously issued Joint Statement by the SEC and FINRA. This No-Action Letter detailed how broker-dealers could operate alternative trading systems that trade digital assets without garnering enforcement action from the SEC for not meeting the custody requirements required under
On Sept. 21, 2020, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (the OCC) issued guidance pertaining to whether national banks could hold stablecoin reserves. That same day, the Securities and Exchange Commission Strategic Hub for Innovation and Financial Technology Staff (the SEC) issued a statement in response to that guidance, advising whether such digital