Morrison & Foerster Discusses Top Five SEC Enforcement Developments for April 2025

By Michael D. Birnbaum, Haimavathi V. Marlier, Craig D. Martin, Nicole K. Serfoss and Patrick Byxbee June 5, 2025 by renholding

For the month when Paul Atkins was sworn in as SEC Chairman, we examine:

The SEC’s position that “Covered Stablecoins” are not securities under federal securities law;
An SEC victory in the Fifth Circuit regarding the imposition of a receivership

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The GENIUS Act Needs a Rule on Extraterritoriality

By Benedikt Bartylla April 29, 2025 by renholding

Congress seems on its way to passing the first piece of federal crypto-regulation, the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins – or GENIUS – Act. The law would create a comprehensive regulatory framework for payment stablecoins, which are …

Uniswap’s Reprieve Reveals the Uncertainty of DeFi Regulation

By Richard Fair April 28, 2025 by renholding

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

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A&O Shearman Discusses SEC Staff Position on USD-Backed Stablecoins

By F. Dario de Martino, Susan Gault-Brown, C. Wallace DeWitt and Bill Satchell April 10, 2025 by renholding

On April 4, 2025, the staff of the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance (the “Staff”) issued a statement addressing the status of certain stablecoins under the U.S. securities laws.

The statement concludes that a narrow class of USD-backed, fully reserved, …

SEC Offers Views on Stablecoins

By Securities and Exchange Commission April 7, 2025 by renholding

As part of an effort to provide greater clarity on the application of the federal securities laws to crypto assets,[1] the Division of Corporation Finance is providing its views[2] on certain types of crypto assets commonly referred to …

Wilson Sonsini Discusses the New SEC Crypto Task Force

By Amy Caiazza and Alice Cao March 12, 2025 by eorozco

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 …

Why Stablecoins and Central Bank Digital Currencies Need to Co-Exist

By Yuliya Guseva, Sangita Gazi and Douglas Eakeley June 21, 2024 by renholding

Money is a complex construct consisting of public and private elements. It is not all coined or printed by a government; a significant portion originates with private-sector entities like banks, against which other private parties have contractual claims. In a …

How to Regulate FinTech, Crypto Assets, DeFi, and Other Financial Innovations

By Steven L. Schwarcz April 10, 2024 by renholding

In a new article, I attempt to build a systematic framework for regulating FinTech-driven innovations. In doing so, I clarify and simplify the confusing terminology that makes FinTech appear more complicated than it is.

“FinTech” refers to the use of …

Wachtell Lipton Discusses Regulating Cryptoassets With Existing Tools

By Kevin S. Schwartz, Rosemary Spaziani , David M. Adlerstein, David E. Kirk and Sabina M. Beleuz August 23, 2022 by renholding

For all the press lamenting the “crypto winter” and urging long-term legislative overhaul, there has not been sufficient attention to how existing regulatory tools can be employed to address some of the key risks and vulnerabilities in the current crypto …

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 …

Wachtell Lipton Discusses Emerging Issues in Decentralized Governance and the Lessons of Corporate Governance

By Kevin S. Schwartz, David M. Adlerstein, David E. Kirk and I. Andrew Mun June 6, 2022 by renholding

While recent gyrations in cryptoasset markets have focused attention on the future contours of stablecoins, market-making, and impending regulation, another feature of the blockchain landscape is also confronting noteworthy challenges. Specifically, a new breed of business organization has emerged …

SEC Chair Gensler Speaks on Crypto Markets

By Gary Gensler April 5, 2022 by renholding

Thank you. It’s great to be with you all at this event, particularly as the University of Pennsylvania is my alma mater. I was over at Wharton, and what I knew of the law school is that the library stacks

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It’s Time to Regulate Stablecoins as Deposits and Require Their Issuers to Be FDIC-Insured Banks

By Arthur E. Wilmarth, Jr. January 17, 2022 by renholding

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 …

Sullivan & Cromwell Discusses Stablecoins Report of President’s Working Group on Financial Markets

By Sullivan & Cromwell November 11, 2021 by renholding

The President’s Working Group on Financial Markets (the “PWG”),[1] the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (the “OCC”) published the Report on Stablecoins on November 1, 2021.^[2] The Report (1) …

Stablecoins, National Currencies, CBDCs, and Banks

By Kimberly A. Houser and Colleen Baker October 18, 2021 by renholding

The Federal Reserve is set to release a much anticipated discussion paper on the prospect of a digital U.S. dollar. According to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), over 86 percent of central banks are investigating the possibility of a …

Regulating Digital Currencies: Towards an Analytical Framework

By Steven L. Schwarcz March 23, 2021 by renholding

In a new article, I examine the development and regulation of digital currencies, which are monetary currencies that are evidenced electronically. Large “wholesale” payments among businesses and financial institutions already occur electronically, and bitcoin has been with us for …

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