Politics, Legal & Regulation

April 15, 2021 @ 10:11 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Chairwoman of the House Committee on Financial Services, Maxine Waters, and the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Sherrod Brown, have jointly announced a new round of hearings that will see the CEOs of the top US banks testify in front of each… Read More

April 15, 2021 @ 4:55 pm By JD Alois  |  

In a blog post today, Robinhood responded to an attempt by the State of Massachusetts Securities Division to revoke Robinhood’s broker-dealer license in the state thus blocking its ability to operate. Robinhood said they have filed in Massachusetts State Court a complaint and motion for… Read More

April 14, 2021 @ 3:21 pm By JD Alois  |  

In a floor vote yesterday, the US Senate approved the selection of Gary Gensler as the next Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. The current SEC Commissioners joined in welcoming the new Chair stating: “A warm congratulations to Gary Gensler on his Senate confirmation… Read More

April 14, 2021 @ 7:36 am By JD Alois  |  

SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce has posted an update to her Token Safe Habor proposal. Back in February 2020, Commissioner Peirce revealed her proposal in an effort to create a regulatory environment that supported Fintech innovation while acknowledging the unique characteristics of digital assets. Since the… Read More

April 12, 2021 @ 9:56 pm By Lee Schneider  |  

A murder of crows.  A pride of lions. A school of fish.  A conundrum of NFTs.  At least that’s how it feels when faced with the ever-growing craze for non-fungible tokens.  Here are five things about NFTs that may surprise you. They’re just another type… Read More

April 11, 2021 @ 7:50 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Cryptocurrency intelligence firm CipherTrace is reportedly using Chainlink to release CipherTrace DeFi Compli: a compliance solution enabling decentralized or non-custodial exchanges (DEXs) and other DeFi apps to adhere to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions requirements. As part of its decentralized finance (DeFi)… Read More

April 11, 2021 @ 3:36 pm By JD Alois  |  

Several months ago, FinCEN submitted for publication in the Federal Register its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) regarding certain transactions that involve virtual currency or digital assets. FinCEN or the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network is a bureau of the US Department of the Treasury that… Read More

April 8, 2021 @ 6:30 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Billionaire Mark Cuban-backed Nifty’s has reportedly hired Olta Andoni, an NFT copyright legal expert as its new Chief Legal Officer. Andoni will notably be the first CLO of the nascent non-fungible token or NFT-focused social media platform. Nifty’s is a fairly new online network for… Read More

April 8, 2021 @ 3:12 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) reports that the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada has entered a default judgment against defendants David Gilbert Saffron and Circle Society, Corp. for a cryptocurrency fraud and a misappropriation scheme. The final judgment is the result… Read More

April 8, 2021 @ 2:00 pm By JD Alois  |  

Back in January of this year, Anchorage, a top crypto platform for institutions, announced that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) had conditionally approved  Anchorage Trust Company, a South Dakota chartered trust company, to become Anchorage Digital Bank, National Association. Thus, Anchorage… Read More

April 7, 2021 @ 5:04 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has obtained final judgment concluding the fraud case against real estate crowdfunding platform iFunding and defendant William C. Skelley. iFunding was an early entrant in the real estate crowdfunding market that issued securities under Reg D 506c, a new… Read More

April 7, 2021 @ 4:17 pm By JD Alois  |  

Back in December of 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) posted a complaint alleging that Ripple engaged in the sale of an unregistered security. The enforcement action included Christian Larsen, the company’s co-founder, executive chairman of its board, and former CEO, and Bradley Garlinghouse,… Read More

April 6, 2021 @ 9:17 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

A federal court in the District of Massachusetts recently entered an order that authorizes the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to serve a John Doe summons on Circle Internet Financial Inc., “or its predecessors, subsidiaries, divisions, and affiliates, including Poloniex LLC.” According to a release,… Read More

April 6, 2021 @ 4:29 pm By JD Alois  |  

Coming off the revelation that the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) was not inclined to approve the merger between Seedrs and Crowdcube, Seedrs co-founder and Chairman Jeff Lynn was recently interviewed by the FT. Speaking with the broadsheet, Lynn “warned that the UK competition… Read More

April 6, 2021 @ 12:11 pm By JD Alois  |  

Paxos to Apply for Formal Clearing Agency License from the SEC Paxos Trust Company, a compliant blockchain infrastructure provider, has completed a same-day settlement of US-listed equity trades in partnership with Instinet and Credit Suisse. Same-day settlement is colloquially known as T+0 – currently, financial… Read More

April 6, 2021 @ 12:00 pm By Patrick Daugherty, John Lanza and Catherine Zhu  |  

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) were minted and sold under the radar until a relatively obscure artist sold an NFT for an immense sum. That seminal event invigorated interest in NFTs by artists, sales platforms, and collectors. In this column, we undertake to identify and answer, in… Read More

April 6, 2021 @ 9:57 am By JD Alois  |  

The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) have begun testing its central bank digital currency (CBDC) or digital yuan for cross-border transfers, according to a report in SCMP. The report quotes Wang Xin, Head of Research at the PBoC,… Read More

April 6, 2021 @ 1:00 am By JD Alois  |  

The Recovery Loan Scheme is now open for application. Administered by the British Business Bank, this is a new scheme to support access to finance for UK businesses as they turn the corner on the COVID-19 health crisis. The scheme, announced at the Budget on… Read More

April 5, 2021 @ 10:23 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) has provided an updated set of regulatory guidelines that are meant to serve as a framework to support the operations of Fintech companies. Many of these startups offer third-party services to clients of… Read More

April 5, 2021 @ 9:14 am By Omar Faridi  |  

The Bank of Japan (BoJ) revealed on Monday (April 5, 2021) that it has officially started Phase 1 of its central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilots and related experiments. The initial phase of testing will mainly focus on assessing the basic functions of CBDCs as… Read More