Sky Blog
In 2023, a former employee and shareholder of a struggling startup called Teespring sued not just the company and its managers, but also one of its investors: Hydrazine Capital, a venture fund affiliated with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. The plaintiff …
The enactment of the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act established the nation’s first federal prudential framework for “payment stablecoins,” mandating 1:1 reserve backing and explicitly prohibiting issuers from paying interest.[1] This legislative bargain was …
At the end of December, the FDIC issued two releases related to the resolution of failed banks. The December 31 release provided an update about the FDIC rule on insured depository institution (“IDI”) resolution plans (the “IDI plan rule”).[1] The …
The environment has never been more favorable for existing banking organizations launching a digital asset business and those Fintech and other nonbank companies considering acquiring or chartering a full-service or limited-purpose bank in order to operate a digital asset business. …
A recent OECD report explores key issues and trends in sustainable bond markets, including green bonds and sustainability-linked bonds. It aims to inform policy discussions on investors’ goals when acquiring sustainable bonds, how these instruments may influence corporate and official …
The Federal Reserve and FDIC took actions last week designed to facilitate crypto-related activities. The Federal Reserve rescinded its anti-crypto 2023 policy statement and replaced it with a more permissive stance designed to facilitate innovation, and requested information on a …
Debates on whether to simplify financial regulations are often framed as if complexity were a technical inconvenience –an unfortunate by-product of legislative over-exuberance that could be corrected by pruning rulebooks and consolidating texts. Yet the reality is not so simple. …
Climate-related reporting continues to be a controversial topic. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has withdrawn its defense of enhanced climate-related disclosures, the European Commission is debating how to scale back mandatory sustainability reporting requirements under its Omnibus revisions, …
401(k) accounts are where most Americans put their financial assets.1 President Trump appears determined to prod them to invest those accounts in “alternative investments,” most prominently, private equity. To that end, in Executive Order 14330, the president ordered the Department …
The concept of commercial reasonableness is central to, or at least in the shadow of, most commercial, financial, and other business law disputes. Often, a court’s decision turns in whole or in part on whether parties acted in a commercially …
Key Points:
In October 2025, Bitcoin experienced its largest single-day crash since the COVID-19 pandemic, a 20% decline that economist Paul Krugman attributed not to economic fundamentals but to threats against Donald Trump’s political standing. 1 Krugman’s diagnosis was stark: Bitcoin had …
The proposed Digital Asset Market Clarity Act would establish a comprehensive, top-down regulatory framework for digital assets that reflects a growing bipartisan push in Congress for clear oversight of the digital asset industry. On Nov. 9, 2025, the Senate Committee …
On November 18, 2025, the Federal Reserve released a Statement of Supervisory Operating Principles that sets out changes to how Federal Reserve examiners should supervise banking organizations. The Statement translates Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman’s stated priorities into concrete …
On November 5, 2025, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the “FRB”) adopted, by a six-to-one vote (with Governor Michael Barr dissenting), a set of revisions to the supervisory ratings system applicable to holding companies of large …
Following the 2007-08 Global Financial Crisis, regulators around the world sought to design a new framework that would result in “bail-ins” instead of “bailouts” of large financial institutions. One important tool in that framework was a debt-equity hybrid instrument: contingent …
Insiders such as executives, directors, and large shareholders often use company stock as collateral for personal loans. This practice is widespread but lightly regulated, and to many it has long seemed a harmless perk of wealth and a private decision …
In many economic settings, gatekeepers play a central role. For example, auditors verify public firms’ financial statements, lawyers sign off on transactions by providing legal opinions, and bank regulators assess whether banks are financially sound. Gatekeepers influence the behavior of …
On October 15, Travis Hill, Acting Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (who has been nominated to permanently lead the agency) delivered a speech titled “Resolution Readiness and Lessons Learned from Recent Large Bank Failures” at the EU Single …
Artificial intelligence (AI) poses a clear and present danger to our money and our markets. With AI, bad actors and rogue nations can readily and cheaply engage in market manipulation, financial misinformation, and regulatory misconduct that threaten the stability, integrity, …