An executive order and related legislation centralizes Bitcoin and digital asset holdings across the federal government to optimize oversight and management of crypto as a US reserve asset.
By Jenny Cieplak, Zachary Fallon, Arthur S. Long, Yvette D. Valdez, Stephen P. Wink, Connor Jobes, and Deric Behar
On March 6, 2025, President Trump issued an executive order for the “Establishment of the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and United States Digital Asset Stockpile” (the Order). As
The resource aims to provide a comprehensive, voluntary framework to enhance transparency in the digital assets market and enable informed decision-making for potential buyers.
Stakeholders have until January 31, 2025, to submit comments on the “Proposed Information Guidelines for Certain Tokens Made Available in the United States” (the Guidelines), which were published last month by a select group of legal and business experts in the area of digital assets and blockchain.
The Guidelines aim to
The Legal Statement applies areas of insolvency law to digital assets, providing valuable guidance on the approach English courts will take.
By Bruce Bell, Stuart Davis, Gabriel Lakeman, Jessica Walker, and Tim Bennett
In October 2023, the UK’s Jurisdiction Taskforce (UKJT), which is made up of senior judges, lawyers, a law commissioner, and the Financial Conduct Authority as an observer, issued a consultation on the treatment of digital assets in an English insolvency. This has resulted
The proposal would subject certain large non-bank companies offering wallet and payment services to federal regulatory oversight on par with banks and credit unions.
By Jenny Cieplak, Parag Patel, Barrie VanBrackle, and Deric Behar
On November 7, 2023, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) proposed a rule, Defining Larger Participants of a Market for General-Use Digital Consumer Payment Applications (the Proposal), to supervise large providers of digital wallets and payment apps. The Proposal aims to ensure that US-based non-bank financial service companies providing digital wallets and payment apps will be subject to the same federal supervisory rules as banks, credit unions, and other financial institutions that the CFPB already supervises.
According to the CFPB, fintech companies and other firms offering novel products and services in the consumer finance space have “blur[ed] the traditional lines of banking and commerce.” The Proposal therefore aims to “enable the CFPB to monitor for new risks to both consumers and the market,” and to “promote fair competition” through consistent enforcement between depository and non-depository institutions.
A new program addresses innovative banking activities such as bank-fintech partnerships and digital assets while reinforcing guardrails around stablecoin activity.
By Arthur S. Long, Parag Patel, Pia Naib, Ja Hyeon Park, and Deric Behar
On August 8, 2023, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (FRB) issued guidance to the banking organizations that it oversees regarding its supervision of novel activities. The guidance also provides information on the process that state banks can follow to engage in certain stablecoin activities.
A bifurcated decision in a highly anticipated digital assets enforcement action may not provide the clarity that market participants want or need.
By Jack Barber, Jenny Cieplak, Benjamin Naftalis, John Sikora, Stephen P. Wink, Douglas K. Yatter, Luca Marquard, Adam Zuckerman, and Deric Behar
On July 13, 2023, Judge Analisa Torres of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York issued an order on motions for summary judgment in the civil enforcement action brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on December 22, 2020, against Ripple Labs Inc. (Ripple), its former CEO (Christian Larsen), and its former COO and current CEO (Brad Garlinghouse). The SEC’s claims include the unlawful offer and sale of securities in violation of Section 5 of the Securities Act of 1933 (the Securities Act), as well as aiding and abetting the allegedly unlawful offer and sale of securities by the individual defendants (see this Latham blog post for more information).
The issue before the Court was whether, at the time of the various offerings, the defendants sold XRP as an investment contract. The Court determined at the outset that “XRP, as a digital token, is not in and of itself a ‘contract, transaction, or scheme’ that embodies the Howey requirements of an investment contract. Rather, the Court examines the totality of the circumstances surrounding the defendants’ different transactions and schemes involving the sale and distribution of XRP.”
MAS has published new requirements for DPT service providers and a consultation paper on additional regulations and prohibitions against unfair trading practices.
By Simon Hawkins, Farhana Sharmeen, Adrian Fong, and Tan Gen Huong
On 3 July 2023, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Singapore’s primary regulator for banks and payment services, announced new custody and segregation requirements for digital payment token (DPT) service providers, including new obligations to safekeep customer assets under a statutory trust.
Additionally, the MAS published a consultation paper (the Consultation Paper) seeking the public’s views on its proposed regulatory measures for DPT service providers and prohibitions against unfair trading practices. The Consultation Paper follows the MAS’ previous consultation paper on proposed regulatory measures for DPT services in December 2022.
The MAS’ proposals largely align with the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission’s (SFC) new framework for regulating virtual asset trading platforms (VATP) (see Latham’s blog post), and indicate that virtual asset service providers must comply with regulatory rules similar to the securities regime. This aligned concept aims to ensure investor protection in line with regulators’ “same risk, same regulation” approach.
The regulatory perimeter continues to expand as the Securities and Futures Commission introduces a comprehensive regime to regulate virtual asset service providers.
By Simon Hawkins and Adrian Fong
In December 2022, Hong Kong passed the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing (Amendment) Bill 2022 (Amendment Bill), which will establish a new licensing regime and statutory framework for virtual asset service providers from 1 June 2023. Initially, the Amendment Bill will apply to anyone operating a centralised virtual asset trading platform in Hong Kong or actively marketing such services to the Hong Kong public.
The CRPTO Act is intended to increase transparency and consumer protections, and reduce conflicts of interest, through heightened disclosures and penalties.
By Jenny Cieplak, Arthur S. Long, Yvette Valdez, Stephen P. Wink, and Deric Behar
On May 5, 2023, New York Attorney General (NYAG) Letitia James introduced a bill that, if passed, would increase New York’s oversight of digital assets market activity.[1] The Crypto Regulation, Protection, Transparency and Oversight Act (the CRPTO Act, or the Bill) would provide the NYAG’s office with greater enforcement powers to police the digital asset industry. It would also expand the New York Department of Financial Services’ (NYDFS’s) authority to regulate individuals and businesses engaging in digital asset transactions. The CRPTO Act comes on the heels of several high-profile enforcement actions by the NYAG against digital asset businesses.