Sky Blog
For over a decade, regulators, market participants, and Congress have wrestled with the challenge of regulating crypto assets. This relatively nascent asset class, underpinned by novel technology, has been difficult to regulate under existing financial regulatory frameworks. While both the …
Derivatives lawyers are not known to be an excitable bunch. But a recent opinion from the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Texas has derivatives lawyers excited, and not in a good way. The judge has vastly restricted …
The SEC’s Division of Trading and Markets and the CFTC’s Division of Market Oversight and Division of Clearing and Risk (collectively, the “Divisions”)[1] are announcing a cross-agency initiative in furtherance of the SEC’s Project Crypto and the CFTC’s Crypto …
Executive Summary
Few in business or law are talking enough about the national legalization of sports gambling. For the last few months, anyone, in any state, has been able to place wagers on the outcome of professional baseball, basketball, hockey, and tennis …
After nearly two decades of regulatory uncertainty, digital assets stand at a critical juncture in American financial law. On July 18, 2025, President Trump signed the “Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins Act,” known as the GENIUS Act, …
On June 17, 2025, the Senate passed the GENIUS Act, shorthand for the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act, by a bipartisan vote of 68-30, with 18 Democratic Senators supporting the Bill. The GENIUS Act would amend …
As regulators and policymakers across the federal government press forward with creating long-sought rules of the road for the cryptoasset industry, several recent developments bear particular significance for the promise of the decentralized internet, or Web3. Among these is the …
In 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued Wells notices to at least 13 crypto companies – several of which were decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms – including Uniswap Labs (Uniswap), the second largest decentralized exchange (DEX) by trading volume
On April 7, 2025, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche issued a memo (the “Blanche Memo”) announcing the Trump administration’s Department of Justice (“DOJ”) refocus of enforcement policies related to investigations and prosecutions of individuals and entities involved with digital assets. …
On April 7, 2025, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche issued a memorandum to all Department of Justice employees (the “Memorandum”) announcing an overhaul of previous enforcement directives relating to digital assets. The Deputy Attorney General issued the Memorandum consistent with …
On February 25, 2025, the Division of Enforcement (Enforcement Division) of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) released an Enforcement Advisory on Self-Reporting, Cooperation, and Remediation (Advisory). The Advisory is the Enforcement Division’s “sole policy on self-reporting, cooperation, and …
Less than two years after announcing a more aggressive approach to enforcement, the CFTC Division of Enforcement has issued a new policy on self-reporting and cooperation credit that replaces all previous Division policies on enforcement matters, stressing a more balanced …
In relevant developments in U.S. whistleblower programs over the past year, (1) the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) introduced a three-year pilot program that offers monetary awards for reports relating to certain specific types of corporate misconduct; (2) the annual reports …
The recent scandal involving TD Securities LLC[1] has served as a stark reminder of the dark side of high-frequency trading. While this particular case has garnered significant attention, it is far from an isolated incident. Spoofing, a form of …
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission today announced record monetary relief of over $17.1 billion for fiscal year 2024. With the resolution of digital asset cases that resulted in the agency’s largest recovery ever, this record amount included $2.6 billion in …
Bank stocks surged the day after Donald J. Trump won election to a second presidential term, recording double-digit gains on a widespread view that financial regulation under the new administration will be more industry friendly than in the current one. …
On October 2, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit cleared the way, at least for the time being, for betting on the outcome of U.S. elections.[1] The D.C. Circuit denied the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s …
For the first time, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the “CFTC”) initiated enforcement actions against a carbon credit project developer and two of its executives for violating the antifraud provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act (the “CEA”) and CFTC …
In recent years, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) has expressed concern about the lack of cohesive product standards and the potential for fraud within the voluntary carbon markets. Just this month, the CFTC announced its first …