Sullivan & Cromwell Discusses Recent Legal Developments on Voluntary Carbon Credits

By James M. McDonald, James M. Shea Jr., Marc Treviño, Samuel E. Saunders and Harshil Bansal November 22, 2023 by renholding

A large number of companies globally have announced net zero greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions targets, most of which are likely to require some form of carbon offsetting. Many consumers are also interested in offsetting their carbon footprint. The development of …

How Investors React to SEC and CFTC Enforcement in Digital Asset Markets

By Yuliya Guseva and Irena Hutton November 17, 2023 by renholding

Digital assets and blockchains can lead to financial innovations with a range of applications across countries, markets, and industries. Yet they also require comprehensive regulation, which is especially difficult within the fragmented financial-regulation framework of the United States. In a …

Skadden Discusses New CFTC Enforcement Advisory on Penalties, Monitors, and Admissions

By David Meister, Chad E. Silverman and Peter A. Varlan October 24, 2023 by renholding

On October 17, 2023, the Division of Enforcement (the Division) of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC or the Commission) issued an advisory to Division staff providing guidance on what recommendations the Division will make to the Commission regarding penalties, …

Davis Polk Discusses Recent SEC and CFTC Enforcement Actions

By Greg D. Andres, Robert A. Cohen, Martine M. Beamon, Stefani Johnson Myrick and Fuad Rana October 4, 2023 by renholding

In July and August 2023, the SEC filed 84 actions and the CFTC filed 16, against a combined total of 176 defendants and respondents. (These figures exclude follow-on actions, bars and suspensions.) The actions include public company disclosure and crypto …

Skadden Discusses CFTC Charges That DeFi Developers Facilitated Off-Exchange Trading

By Alexander C. Drylewski, Stuart D. Levi, David Meister, Daniel Michael, Chad E. Silverman and Peter A. Varlan September 26, 2023 by renholding

On September 7, 2023, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued three enforcement settlement orders against developers of decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols.¹ The orders charge Opyn, Inc., Deridex, Inc., and ZeroEx, Inc. (0x) with illegally offering leveraged and margined …

Skadden Discusses New Senate Crypto Bill Limiting SEC Regulatory Role

By David Meister, Chad E. Silverman and Daniel Merzel July 25, 2023 by renholding

A bipartisan bill introduced in the U.S. Senate two weeks ago seeks “to bring crypto assets within the regulatory perimeter” by granting oversight responsibility to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for most forms of cryptocurrency.

The new bill, sponsored …

SEC Chair Speaks About the Treasury Markets and the Debt Ceiling Discussions

By Gary Gensler May 12, 2023 by renholding

Good afternoon. I’m pleased to be back for what I’m told is the fifth time speaking before the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA). As is customary, I’d like to note that my views are my own as Chair of …

Angels and Devils: The Early Crypto Entrepreneurs

By Darian Ibrahim December 8, 2022 by renholding

After the collapse of FTX and a summer of crypto failures (Terra Luna, Celsius, Three Arrows), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will want to act quickly and treat more digital assets as “securities.” But which ones? In a new …

Let’s Stop Treating Crypto Trading as If It Were Finance

By Todd H. Baker November 29, 2022 by renholding

Members of Congress and financial regulators from the Federal Reserve, U.S. Treasury, SEC, CFTC, and CFPB appear set on regulating the crypto trading system (traded coins and associated marketplaces, exchanges, brokerages, lending, staking, derivatives, intermediaries, and enablers) as part of …

Are We Seeing Double? Regulatory Overlap Between the SEC and the PCAOB

By Sarah J. Williams October 31, 2022 by renholding

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently announced that it was initiating proceedings against a former audit partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP for violating professional standards in reviewing the financial statements of Mattel, Inc. One might wonder why it is …

Davis Polk Discusses What’s Missing from Bipartisan Bills to Regulate Crypto

By Joseph A. Hall, Dan Gibbons, Gabriel D. Rosenberg and Zachary J. Zweihorn August 15, 2022 by renholding

In the last few weeks, two bills with the potential to bring needed regulatory certainty to the U.S. digital asset industry were introduced in the Senate with solid bipartisan backing.

In June, Senators Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) …

SEC Chair Gensler on Proposed Joint Amendments to Form PF

By Gary Gensler August 11, 2022 by renholding

Today [August 10], the Commission is considering whether to propose joint amendments with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to Form PF, an important reporting tool that the Commission and the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) use, respectively, to protect

…

Skadden Discusses Ramifications of Cryptocurrency Insider Trading Case

By Alexander C. Drylewski, Stuart D. Levi, Daniel Michael, Mana Ghaemmaghami and Anita Oh July 28, 2022 by renholding

On July 21, 2022, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) each brought insider trading charges against a former Coinbase product manager, his brother and a close friend for using material non-public information (MNPI) to …

What Are NFTs and Why Are They So Controversial?

By Aarthi Anand July 19, 2022 by renholding

Nonfungible token (NFT or Token) was the word of the year in 2021, as NFT sales exceeded $4 billion in monthly trading volume in January 2022 after generating more than $23 billion in sales in 2021. Celebrities including musicians Eminem…

The Lummis-Gillibrand Responsible Financial Innovation Act

By Joel Seligman June 27, 2022 by renholding

On June 10, 2022, U.S. senators Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) introduced S. 4356, their Responsible Financial Innovation Act, to transfer most regulation of cryptoproducts to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC}, essentially ousting the SEC, presumably perceived …

Skadden Discusses Senate Bill to Create Regulatory Structure for Crypto and Other Digital Assets

By Alexander C. Drylewski, Nathan W. Giesselman, Stuart D. Levi, Daniel Michael, Bao Nguyen and Andrew R. Beatty June 23, 2022 by renholding

In recent years, innovation in the blockchain or “Web3” space has been impacted by uncertainty on the regulatory front. Undoubtedly, the greatest area of uncertainty has involved the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) and its application of the so-called Howey test …

Congress Should Grant the SEC Oversight of Digital Asset Spot Markets

By Lee Reiners April 21, 2022 by renholding

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has classified Bitcoin and Ether – and by extension other cryptocurrencies that are similarly structured – as commodities (courts have also upheld this classification). While the CFTC regulates commodity derivatives, they do not regulate …

A Tokenized Future: Regulatory Lessons from Crowdfunding and Standard Form Contracts

By Darian Ibrahim April 13, 2022 by renholding

Cryptocurrencies and other digital assets (“crypto”) are surging in popularity. If cryptos are securities (“investment contracts” under the Howey test), they must be sold in accordance with the federal securities laws. This likely requires registration with the Securities and Exchange …

SEC Chair Gensler Talks Registration of Security-Based Swap Execution Facilities

By Gary Gensler April 8, 2022 by renholding

Today [April 6], the Commission is considering a proposal to create a framework for the registration of security-based swap execution facilities (security-based SEFs). I am pleased to support this proposal because, if adopted, it would increase the transparency and integrity

…

Wachtell Lipton Discusses the Growing Enforcement Focus on Cryptoassets

By Richard K. Kim, Sarah K. Eddy, Rosemary Spaziani, David M. Adlerstein and Amanda M. Lee February 23, 2022 by renholding

Underscoring that misconduct surrounding cryptoassets has become a top U.S. enforcement priority, the Department of Justice announced on February 17 the appointment of Eun Young Choi as head of a dedicated National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team. The NCET’s mandate is to …

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