Sky Blog
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
The lead of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) new Crypto Task Force (Task Force), Commissioner Hester Peirce, recently laid out principles for how the Task Force will approach regulation and provided a roadmap for specific issues the Task …
On January 13, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued an opinion requiring the SEC to provide a more complete explanation for its refusal to engage in formal notice-and-comment rulemaking regarding the application of securities laws to …
Last week’s election results signal a definitive end to the enforcement-only philosophy that for the last four years has characterized the SEC’s posture towards the crypto industry. It’s not realistic to think Congress and regulators will now simply adopt a …
Today [December 15], the Commission denied a Petition for Rulemaking[1] filed on behalf of Coinbase Global, Inc. I was pleased to support the Commission’s decision for three reasons. First, existing laws and regulations apply to the crypto securities markets. …
The Commission has denied the Petition for Rulemaking filed on behalf of Coinbase Global, Inc. (“Petitioner”) on July 21, 2022.[1] We disagree with the Commission’s decision.
We acknowledge that the Commission has broad discretion to set the timing and
The value of assets on the blockchain has soared to billions of dollars, stored everywhere from Bitcoin to Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs to play-to-earn gaming. Some of those assets, though, have crashed and burned in the wake of market …
In West Virginia v. EPA, the Supreme Court expanded the reach of the major questions doctrine (MQD) by reframing it as a substantive canon and clear-statement rule rooted in both the Constitution’s separation of powers and “a practical understanding …
Last Thursday’s split summary-judgment decision in the case that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) brought against Ripple Labs, Inc. (Ripple) and certain of its senior leaders is bonkers. In partly holding for the defendants, the opinion ignores well established …
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 …
This morning,[1] I’d like to return to a theme I’ve touched on repeatedly in speeches throughout my first year on the job, and that is the urgent need to restore trust in our institutions, government, and the legal and …
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 …
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…
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 …
On February 14, 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced a settled enforcement action charging BlockFi Lending LLC (“BlockFi”) with allegedly failing to register its interest-bearing crypto lending product as a security, failing to register itself as an investment company, …
Non-Fungible Tokens, or NFTs, are big news these days. After an NFT for a piece of digital art by the artist Beeple (Mike Winkelmann) sold for $69 million in March 2021―making it the third-most expensive artwork by a living …
On Monday, January 8, 2021, Tesla announced in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it had purchased $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin.[1] This purchase coincided with a dramatic increase in the price of the cryptoasset, which …
The application of the U.S. securities laws to blockchain tokens has been a controversial subject, with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) taking an aggressive posture. On February 6, 2020, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce proposed a non-exclusive safe harbor from …