BarnBridge and its founders Tyler Ward and Troy Murray allegedly sold unregistered SMART Yield bonds, which the SEC considers crypto asset securities.  Respondents also were charged with violations stemming from operating BarnBridge’s SMART Yield pools as unregistered investment companies. BarnBridge agreed to disgorge $1,457,000 from the sale and Ward and Murray agreed to civil penalties of $125,000 each. BarnBridge was developed in 2020 to sell structured finance-type investments in pooled crypto asset vehicles. From March 2021 to May 2023, they sold to the public structured crypto asse ..read more

What Happened? The New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS or Department) released proposed updates to its guidance on the self-certification process for listing and delisting digital assets. It also announced significant changes to the Department’s “Greenlist” of vetted digital assets. This industry development affects companies that have received permission to engage in virtual currency business activity from the NYDFS, either through a “bitlicense” or a limited purpose trust charter. In June 2020, the Department issued guidance that permitted digital asset businesses to self-certif ..read more

Financial technology firms and certain banks and bank holding companies can expect to face increased scrutiny as the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System takes another step to stem risks related to crypto-assets, use of blockchain technology, and complex fintech partnerships with nonbanks to deliver financial services to customers. Through its newly announced Novel Activities Supervision Program (“NAS Program”), the Federal Reserve will be taking a harder look at its supervised banking organizations, even those with less than $10 billion in assets, “to ensure that the risks associa ..read more

Perkins Coie LLP is pleased to bring you this updated Digital Asset SEC Timeline. The Digital Asset SEC Timeline serves as an interactive compilation of select SEC guidance, enforcement actions, and speeches relating to the application of the federal securities laws to digital assets. Beginning with the release of the DAO Investigative Report in July 2017, the Timeline includes relevant information for analyzing the offering, issuance, and trading of certain digital assets in the context of the federal securities laws. As the Timeline is extensive, the earliest events are summarized on o ..read more

Perkins Coie LLP is pleased to bring you this updated Digital Asset SEC Timeline. The Digital Asset SEC Timeline serves as an interactive compilation of select SEC guidance, enforcement actions, and speeches relating to the application of the federal securities laws to digital assets. Beginning with the release of the DAO Investigative Report in July 2017, the Timeline includes relevant information for analyzing the offering, issuance, and trading of certain digital assets in the context of the federal securities laws. This Timeline is meant to be a resource for those following SEC actions an ..read more

On March 1, 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) unsealed an indictment against the CEO of a publicly traded healthcare company (the Executive) relating to charges of an insider trading scheme. The indictment represents the first time the DOJ has brought criminal insider trading charges stemming from an executive’s use of a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The investigation is part of a data-driven initiative led by the DOJ’s Fraud Section to identify executive abuses of 10b5-1 trading plans. Rule 10b5-1 Plans Rule 10b5-1 trading plans offer an affirmative defense from insider trading liability ..read more

FTX filed its presentation to the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors (UCC), reporting that FTX has located about $5.5 billion of cash and other liquid assets but less than $1.8 billion of digital assets identified with both FTX.com and FTX US, excluding illiquid tokens. FTX reported that it expects to find and liquidate additional assets and value. This additional value is anticipated to be realized through selling securities, subsidiaries, and real estate, as well as through lawsuits (known as adversary proceedings in bankruptcy cases) yet to be filed. Examples of litigation targets se ..read more

Perkins Coie LLP is pleased to bring you this updated Digital Asset SEC Timeline. The Digital Asset SEC Timeline serves as an interactive compilation of select SEC guidance, enforcement actions, and speeches relating to the application of the federal securities laws to digital assets. Beginning with the release of the DAO Investigative Report in July 2017, the Timeline includes relevant information for analyzing the offering, issuance, and trading of certain digital assets in the context of the federal securities laws. This Timeline is meant to be a resource for those following SEC actions an ..read more

“Easter eggs are basically messages or particular references deliberately hidden throughout a movie that the usual movie-goer often fails to notice but they are always there.” Most articles about Chief United States Bankruptcy Judge Michael Glenn’s opinion that “Earn Assets in Earn Accounts constitute property of the Estates” (opinion, p. 45) focus on the court’s reliance on the terms of service for the Celsius Earn Accounts and how those terms effectively transferred ownership of the assets in those accounts. But did Judge Glenn place an Easter egg in the opinion that could be argued in the f ..read more

Bankruptcy court hearings to confirm Chapter 11 plans, which set forth how the company seeks to exit bankruptcy, are frequently delayed. These hearings are infrequently canceled. But on November 15, 2022, Voyager canceled its scheduled December 8, 2022, confirmation hearing, citing the FTX bankruptcy filing as the cause. Just weeks earlier, Voyager promoted its planned sale of the substantial majority of its assets to FTX as the best possible outcome for its creditors in Voyager’s court-approved disclosure statement. It also described the sale consideration value as approximately $1.422 billio ..read more