Non-Fungible Insights: Blockchain Decrypted

Regulatory uncertainty has haunted the digital asset space since its inception. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have been engaged in a multi-year turf war over which agency has the power to regulate various aspects of digital assets.

On February 7, 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced charges against TradeStation Crypto, Inc. for “failing to register the offer and sale of a crypto lending product” that it offered to U.S. investors from approximately August 2020 to June 2022.

Winston’s “NFT Litigation and Regulatory Proceedings Tracker” on Lexis+ provides timely updates on significant litigation and administration proceedings involving NFTs brought by U.S. regulatory agencies and private litigants.

Yesterday marked a historic milestone in the history of bitcoin. On January 10, 2024, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission declared effective the applications to list shares of the following 11 spot bitcoin exchange-traded products and greenlighted the commencement of trading shares of the spot bitcoin ETPs beginning today.

Although the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 2022 approved two exchange-traded funds (ETF) holding bitcoin futures, the Commission has rejected several efforts to list bitcoin spot ETFs.

On May 18, 2023, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) and Representative Darren Soto (D-FL) proposed the bipartisan Securities Clarities Act (the “Act”). The purpose of the Act is to “clarify and codify that an asset sold pursuant to an investment contract….including an asset in digital form…, that is not otherwise a security…does not become a security as a result of being sold or otherwise transferred pursuant to an investment contract.”

On May 30, 2023, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) settled its case against a former Coinbase employee and his brother for alleged “insider trading” of digital assets. At the heart of the dispute was whether several digital assets trading on the platform were properly regarded as “securities” under U.S. law.

On May 15, 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission responded to Coinbase, Inc.’s request for writ of mandamus instructing the SEC to act on Coinbase’s previously filed rulemaking petition. In its response, the SEC argued that its regulatory regime is not egregiously delayed and that the SEC is not withholding any decisions already made.

On February 22, 2023, the Southern District of New York denied a motion to dismiss by blockchain company Dapper Labs and its CEO Roham Gharegozlou. Dapper Labs is behind the “NBA Top Shot Moments” Non-Fungible Token collection and also controls the private Flow blockchain network, on which the NFT transactions occur via the exclusive FLOW tokens.

On February 13, 2023, Paxos Trust Company, LLC, a New York State-chartered trust company regulated by the New York State Department of Financial Services, confirmed via a statement that it received a Wells Notice from the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 3, 2023.

On November 7, 2022, the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire ruled that the digital asset LBRY Credits (LBC), offered to purchasers by LBRY, Inc., is an unregistered security for U.S. federal securities law purposes. This summary judgment follows a March 2021 Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) enforcement action in which the agency claimed that LBRY’s offer and sale of LBC violated Sections 5(a) and 5(c) of the Securities Act of 1933 prohibiting unregistered offerings or sales of securities in interstate commerce. Ruling in favor of the SEC, the court determined that LBRY offered LBC as a security and rejected LBRY’s argument that it lacked “fair notice.”

On October 3, 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a cease-and-desist order against media personality Kim Kardashian for violations of Section 17(b) of the Securities Act of 1933, which makes it unlawful for any person to promote a “security” without fully disclosing the receipt and amount of compensation received for such promotion. Section 17(b) is known as the SEC’s “anti-touting rule.”

On September 8, 2022, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler expounded his thoughts on cryptocurrency tokens (“Tokens”) and cryptocurrency intermediaries (“Intermediaries”) at the Practising Law Institute’s “SEC Speaks” program.

The Commission recently filed S.E.C. v. Wahi, et. al. (2022), an insider trading case brought in federal court in the state of Washington against a former Coinbase manager and others. The crux of the action is whether the former manager unlawfully provided the others advance notice of which digital assets were to be listed on the Coinbase platform before the listing was announced publicly.

Governments and regulators have struggled to keep pace as new digital asset classes and other blockchain applications have risen to prominence. This regulatory uncertainty has caused confusion in the markets and impeded greater adoption of distributed ledger technologies in the United States.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and its Chair Gary Gensler are making good on their promise to increase oversight of the crypto markets.

On April 4, 2022, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler presented his views on decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms and crypto tokens, which reiterated the active stance the SEC is prepared to take on the nascent industry.

On February 14, 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced a first-of-its kind enforcement action against BlockFi Lending LLC, a crypto lending platform, indicating that it intends to treat such products as securities and aggressively regulate the crypto area.

In the last 12 months, institutional‑ and retail-investor demand for cryptocurrency and digital assets has risen exponentially, resulting in a nearly 500% increase in the total market capitalization for over 7,000 forms of cryptocurrency.