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The proposed legislation will bring cryptoassets into the full scope of UK financial services regulation and enable the UK’s future cryptoasset regime.

By Stuart Davis and Gabriel Lakeman

On 29 April, UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves unveiled draft legislation aimed at regulating cryptoassets at the International Fintech Growth Summit (IFGS) in London, sponsored by Latham & Watkins.

The proposed legislation will bring cryptoassets (including stablecoins) and cryptoasset-related activities in scope of the UK regulatory perimeter, providing the fundamental legislative framework for the UK’s future financial services regime for cryptoassets. When implemented, firms issuing stablecoins, operating cryptoasset trading platforms, and providing custody, brokerage, or dealing services will require full authorisation to conduct activity in the UK.1

Silver digital crypto-currency coins standing on metal floor

The court ruled OFAC overstepped its authority in sanctioning Tornado Cash, holding that its smart contracts are not “property” under the governing statutes.

By Eric Volkman, Jenny Cieplak, Stephen P. Wink, and Deric Behar

On November 26, 2024, a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed a Texas District Court decision and overturned the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions designations against certain smart contracts…

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The deadline is fast approaching for in-scope financial entities and their ICT service providers to conform to the EU’s new digital operational resilience regulation.

By Christian F. McDermott and Alain Traill

With effect from 17 January 2025, a broad range of EU financial entities will be subject to the new EU regulation on digital operational resilience for the financial sector (DORA), with significant impact for firms and their third-party ICT service providers. As the new landscape takes shape, below is an overview of some of the key changes and steps that impacted financial entities and providers should be taking ahead of the deadline.

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The case involves substantive litigation that could yield important legal principles for the treatment of decentralised projects.

By Dominic Geiser, Simon Hawkins, Sam Maxson, and Truman Mak

Decentralised autonomous organisations (DAO) are unique structures that operate autonomously in accordance with preset rules, utilising a blockchain and coordinated through a distributed consensus model. Whilst numerous DAOs are operating in the blockchain industry, these organisations are still new in legal terms and their precise legal status (including ownership and…

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The UK’s consultation on deregulating commercial agents could have knock-on impacts on payment services and create regulatory divergence from the EU.

By Christian McDermott, Brett Carr, and Grace Erskine

On 16 May 2024, the UK government launched a consultation into the deregulation of the Commercial Agents (Council Directive) Regulations 1993 (the Commercial Agents Regulations). The Commercial Agents Regulations implemented Council Directive 86/653/EEC (the Commercial Agents Directive) and defined certain pro-agent terms of engagement between businesses and their self-employed commercial agents who are authorised to negotiate the sale or purchase of goods on their behalf.

The stated purpose of the consultation is to ensure that the Commercial Agents Regulations serve the needs of UK businesses post-Brexit, and to remove the legal complexities resulting from the interaction of the Commercial Agents Regulations with the English legal system’s rules on agency and contract law. The UK government’s current proposal is for existing contracts under the Commercial Agents Regulations to remain in force until termination or expiry, and to prevent new contracts from being subject to the Commercial Agents Regulations.

In addition to affecting relationships between UK agents and their principals, the proposals could also have knock-on effects for the payments sector, which we explore in this post.

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Proposed rule would be implemented by statute and would give primacy to parties’ choice of governing law and jurisdiction.

By Stuart Davis, Nell Perks, and Matthew Unsworth

There is at least a tentative consensus in English law that cryptocurrencies and other digital assets are capable of giving rise to property rights.[1] However, there remains considerable uncertainty around which laws should govern proprietary disputes about digital assets and which courts should have jurisdiction over those disputes.

The Financial Markets Law Committee (FMLC) explained the crux of this problem in their initial report on digital assets in 2018.[2] Traditionally, a question as to rights or entitlement to personal property is governed by the law of the place where the property is situated (lex situs).  But this rule is ill-suited to digital assets which, by their nature, are intangible, digitised, and constituted on a decentralised ledger shared across a network of participants in potentially any number of jurisdictions.

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Professional investors will benefit from increased exposure to cryptoassets via traditional financial instruments, though retail investors’ exposure remains limited.

By Stuart Davis, Gabriel Lakeman, and Ivan Pizeta*

In the fast-paced world of cryptocurrency, regulatory clarity is essential for both investors and market participants. In March this year, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) made a significant announcement regarding listing cryptoasset-backed Exchange Traded Notes (cETNs) in the UK. This decision marks an important step towards greater regulatory clarity in…

Silver digital crypto-currency coins standing on metal floor

The bipartisan bill seeks to foster innovation and promote US dollar dominance while protecting consumers and mitigating illicit finance risks.

By Jenny Cieplak, Arthur Long, Yvette D. Valdez, Stephen P. Wink, Adam Fovent, and Deric Behar

On April 17, 2024, US Senators Cynthia Lummis from the Senate Banking Committee and Kirsten Gillibrand from the Senate Agriculture Committee introduced proposed legislation to create a US regulatory framework for stablecoins. The bipartisan Lummis-Gillibrand Payment Stablecoin Act (the Bill) seeks to promote responsible innovation and preserve US dollar dominance, while protecting consumers and digital asset market participants.

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The preliminary injunction was granted pursuant to Fifth Circuit precedent that the CFPB’s independent funding structure is unconstitutional.

By Barrie VanBrackle and Deric Behar

On May 10, 2024, the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas blocked the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) final rule (the Rule) amending Regulation Z to limit credit card late fees. The Rule was initially proposed in February 2023, finalized on March 5, 2024, and was set to go into effect on May 14, 2024.

The Rule aims to ensure that credit card late fees are “reasonable and proportional” to the costs that issuers incur in collecting late payments, as required by TILA. The Rule, however, faced immediate and intense criticism from market participants and trade groups representing banks and credit unions (for more information, see this Latham blog post).

Implementation of Basel Committee cryptoassets standard to provide additional clarity for banks looking to engage in cryptoassets business.

By Simon Hawkins and Adrian Fong

On 7 February 2024, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) released a consultation paper on its proposal for implementing new regulations on the prudential treatment of cryptoasset exposures (Consultation Paper).

The Consultation Paper comes shortly after the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau and the HKMA issued a consultation paper in December 2023 outlining their legislative proposal for a regulatory regime governing stablecoin issuers in Hong Kong (see this Latham blog post). On 20 February 2024, the HKMA also published guidance on digital asset custody services and sale and distribution of tokenised products conducted by banks. Together, these papers offer guidance and greater certainty to banks interested in providing digital asset services (including digital asset issuance, custody, and dealing services).

This blog post summarises the proposed regulations set out in the Consultation Paper as well as next steps for banks, known in Hong Kong as authorised institutions (AI).