Cryptocurrency

As Part of its Ongoing Effort to Crack Down on Tax Evaders in the World of Virtual Currency, IRS is Requiring Coinbase To Turn Over Customer Account Information Coinbase, one of the country’s largest exchanges for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, must turn over the account information of more than 14,000 customers to the Internal Revenue Service […]

SEC Chair Jay Clayton Recently Issued Public Statement on ICOs Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Jay Clayton recently issued a public statement on bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. He also addressed companies’ use of initial coin offerings (ICOs) to raise capital. While the SEC’s latest warning does not create any new guidelines, it does highlight […]

Investor Recourse for Initial Coin Offering Fraud With the price of Bitcoin rising and blockchain technology gaining increasing legitimacy, Initial Coin Offerings (ICOS) are gaining popularity with investors. However, as highlighted by two recent SEC enforcement actions, ICOs are extremely risky investments and in some cases, may be completely fraudulent. In such cases, private investors […]

NYDFS Regulations Require New York Businesses To Obtain a Virtual Currency License Before Engaging In Virtual Currency Business Activity New York is one of the first states in the country to enact a regulatory framework for virtual currencies such as Bitcoin. Under regulations enacted by New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) in 2015, […]

Initial Coin Offerings Revolve Around Key Question – What Is a Security? Businesses are increasingly relying on initial coin offerings (ICOs) to raise capital. However, as with many other new high-tech financial transactions, the law has largely failed to keep pace. As we have discussed previously, virtual coins are created and disseminated using distributed ledger […]

Are Cryptocurrencies “Money” or “Funds” Under 18 U.S.C. 1960? As of 2011, there were less than a handful of digital currencies (aka cryptocurrencies) in circulation. Today, there are over 900, with another initial coin offering (ICO) hitting the market almost every day. The cryptocurrency market has surpassed a market cap of $100 billion. That type of […]