Digital Assets

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On August 17, 2023, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas granted summary judgment to the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) on all of the plaintiffs’ claims in the lawsuit challenging the Department’s Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control’s (OFAC) designation of Tornado Cash, a purportedly decentralized cryptocurrency mixer that runs…

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association, Inc. (“ISDA”) continues to press forward with its digital asset working group, following the publication[1] in January this year of (i) the Digital Asset Derivatives Definitions (the “Definitions”) and (ii) the whitepaper on netting and collateral enforceability.

On May 3, 2023, ISDA published…

Bankruptcy filings in the digital asset space continue, as cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware on Monday, May 8, 2023. The Bankruptcy Docket can be found here. Desolation Holdings LLC and its affiliated debtors, Bittrex, Inc., Bittrex Malta Holdings Ltd., and Bittrex Mala Ltd., as debtors and debtors in possession (“Bittrex US”) filed their chapter 11 petitions alongside a plan of liquidation. Unlike other exchanges that have sought to reorganize in fits and starts, Bittrex US heads directly to liquidation. Activities outside of the US, including Bittrex Global, shall continue uninterrupted by the filing.…

Continue Reading Bittrex: Regulatory Enforcement and Macroeconomic Headwinds Lead to Another Crypto Bankruptcy

Many of those active in the non-fungible token (NFT) market have been nervously anticipating action from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding whether or not they will categorize NFTs as securities and further regulate them. U.S. regulators have not yet definitely opined on whether NFTs in general are securities.  However, a recent ruling, Friel v. Dapper Labs Inc et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 21-05837, may have set the stage for some much-needed clarity with respect to the legal characterization of NFTs.…

Continue Reading NFTs as Securities?

Following many months of discussion and review by a working group of traditional finance institutions and crypto-native exchanges and platforms led by the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, Inc. (“ISDA”), ISDA published the Digital Asset Derivatives Definitions (the “Definitions”) on January 26, 2023 for use with Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH)…