At the Crossroads of Law, Innovation and Commerce
By Cheryl L. Isaac and Maxwell J. Black
Last week, Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) Chair Rostin Behnam asserted that fiat-based stablecoins (such as USD Coin (USDC), Tether (USDT), and Binance USD (BUSD), all of which are pegged to an underlying fiat currency) should be considered as commodities, subject to the CFTC’s enforcement jurisdiction.
Read MoreBy Dr. Jan Boeing and Maxime Barthez[1],
Luxembourg and the EU have taken an important step forward in the area of blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology (“DLT”). With a view to removing regulatory hurdles to the issuance, trading and post-trading of many financial instruments for which an EU regulatory framework already exists (such as the regulation of transferable securities, units in collective investment undertakings and derivatives under MiFIR, MiFID II and CSDR[2]), the EU has put in place the DLT Pilot Regime through Regulation (EU) 2022/858 of 30 May 2022. The new DLT Pilot Regime applies (with certain limitations) to all (traditional) financial instruments within the meaning of MiFID II[3] that are issued, recorded, transferred and stored using blockchain or distributed ledger technology (“DLT Financial Instruments”).
Read MoreBy Judie Rinearson, Jennifer Crowder, and Jeremy McLaughlin
On February 28, 2023, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in the abandoned property lawsuit, Delaware v. Pennsylvania (see https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/145orig_kjfl.pdf)
The question addressed by the Court focused on which state was entitled to collect unclaimed property, which arose from two financial products sold by banks on behalf of Moneygram: Agent Checks and Teller’s Checks (collectively, the “Checks”).
Read MoreBy Daniel Knight and Oliver Herrmann
New licensing requirements for crypto service providers are coming, following a series of consultations launched last week by Treasurer, Jim Chalmers. The Government approach focuses on strengthening enforcement, bolstering consumer protection and ultimately establishing a new licensing framework.
Read MoreBy Drew Hinkes, Elizabeth Thomsen, Josh Durham
As blockchain and nonfungible tokens (NFTs) are still new technologies, their legal infrastructure is still developing, creating potential vulnerabilities. Three such vulnerabilities were exposed in our previous article, available here. We have now issued a follow-up Alert that explores solutions to such licensing failures. This blog is a high-level summary; the full alert can be found here.
Read MoreBy Drew Hinkes, Carly Howard, and Judie Rinearson
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced a settlement with the digital assets/cryptocurrency exchange Kraken whereby Kraken agreed to cease offering or selling securities through its crypto asset staking services, and agreed to pay a penalty of $30 million (comprising disgorgement, prejudgment interest, and civil penalties).
Read MoreBy John ReVeal
On February 1, 2023, the CFPB proposed new rules to reduce the late fees that credit card issuers may charge to consumers (the “Proposed Rules”). The CFPB refers to current late fees as “over the top” and “exorbitant.” The CFPB indicates that it believes it has the authority to limit late fees under the CARD Act of 2009, which amended the Truth in Lending Act to require that late fees and other penalty fees be “reasonable and proportional to” the consumer’s violation of the cardholder agreement.
Read MoreOn February 8, 2023, a Manhattan federal jury found Mason Rothschild liable for trademark infringement for his non-fungible tokens (“NFTs”) called ‘MetaBirkins’. After only 3 days of deliberation, the 9 person jury sided with Hermѐs International and found Rothschild liable for trademark infringement, trademark dilution, and for unlawfully cybersquatting on the domain name MetaBirkins.com.
Read MoreBy Kai Zhang and Judie Rinearson
On 1 February, UK Government commenced another consultation on regulating cryptoassets (other initiatives consulted earlier remain being considered/legislated) which will close on 30 April. This is a consultation on the overall policy approach, i.e. no detailed rules.
Read MoreBy Grant F. Butler, Carly E. Howard, Andrew M. Hinkes
The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve (the “FRB”) issued a policy statement that interprets Section 9(13) of the Federal Reserve Act to limit state member banks to engage as principal in only activities that are (a) permissible for a national bank or (b) explicitly permissible for state banks under federal law. The activity restrictions apply equally to insured and uninsured state member banks supervised directly by the FRB.
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