Sky Blog
Innovations such as blockchain, AI, and DeFi promise to disrupt our markets in ways that are exciting to discuss. Equally important, though perhaps less exciting, is discussing how regulatory agencies should align their oversight when new ideas cut across jurisdictional …
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 …
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 …
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 …
On December 4, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the “CFTC”) proposed guidance for designated contract markets (“DCMs”) listing voluntary carbon credit (“VCC”) derivative contracts. The proposed guidance, published to coincide with COP 28, and the opportunity to provide comment will …
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 …
The trend of escalating penalties for derivatives and commodities market abuse violations continued in 2020. Civil monetary penalties exceeding $100 million have become commonplace for serious corporate violations. Moreover, the DOJ routinely conducts criminal investigations in parallel with the CFTC, …
The Brent and WTI prices of crude oil fell by 60% between June 2014 and January 2015, marking one of the fastest and largest declines in oil history. Several potential factors (related to oil supply and demand) which could have …
The CFTC recently approved a futures contract on a dividend index as a non-security based index futures contract over the SEC’s objection that the dividend index contract could be a security future; the CFTC’s actions may have implications for market …
The Division of Clearing and Risk (the “Division”) of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the “CFTC”) recently issued no-action relief for certain treasury affiliates within non-financial companies from the clearing requirements of Section 2(h)(1) of the Commodity Exchange Act (“CEA”).
Since the effectiveness of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (the “Dodd-Frank Act”), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the “CFTC”) has finalized many of the rules that implement the detailed regulatory regime outlined by the