The crypto-tokens market has recently emerged as an alternative source of financing for entrepreneurial ventures, with approximately $27 billion raised globally through March 2022.[1] These ventures issue blockchain-based digital “crypto-tokens” to raise external capital through an initial coin offering …

On March 9, 2022, President Biden signed an executive order (“the Order”) requiring federal agencies to submit reports on how cryptocurrencies relate to various issues, including money laundering, investor protection, international cooperation, central bank digital currencies (“CBDC”), and systemic risk. …

Few constituencies benefited more from the election of Joe Biden than the socially-responsible investor community, which saw the most-hostile presidential administration replaced by the most supportive.[1] The point is best illustrated by the departure of Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia, …

A SPAC can be understood as an alternative to an IPO, with investors using a large investor, a PIPE, to find out whether the SPAC founder has really chosen a good target or is simply rushing to get a big …

Can managers obtain more useful feedback from capital markets by disclosing pieces of information separately and at different times instead of bundling the information and releasing it at once? It is well known that capital markets’ response to firms’ announcements …

Banks operate in one of the nation’s most heavily regulated industries, where policy intervention aims for wide-ranging goals that include limiting risk, protecting consumers, and ensuring fair treatment of individuals through equal access to credit. The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), …

Securities law in the United States has traditionally been designed around a set of lines – the “public–private divide” – which separate public companies, public capital, and public markets from private companies, private capital, and private markets. Until the early …

Acorns Grow Inc., the financial technology and investing startup, said last week that it was abandoning its $2.2 billion merger with SPAC Pioneer Merger Corp., putting itself on the hook for a $17.5 million termination fee. Coming almost eight months …

In November 2021, the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets (PWG) issued a report analyzing the rapid expansion and growing risks of the stablecoin market.[1]  Stablecoins are digital assets that claim to maintain a “stable” value with reference to …

At least since BlackRock boss Larry Fink’s annual letter to CEOs in 2019, investing in ESG assets has become a major topic among both retail and institutional investors. In a new article, we address the question of how economically attractive …

Global credit rating agencies (CRAs) like S&P and Moody’s are important gatekeepers for the debt market. The demand for their ratings has increased at an unprecedented rate in the past two decades due to an extraordinary growth in cross-border debt …