On October 18th, a cryptocurrency platform provider (Poloniex, Inc.) issued a press release announcing that it filed a request for no-action relief with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the “CFTC”) seeking request with respect to the CFTC’s laws as they relate to margin and lending transactions. To our knowledge, this is first time that a … Continue Reading
On October 12, 2016 the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) issued an order instituting proceedings to determine whether or not to approve or disapprove a proposed rule change filed by Bats BZX Exchange, Inc. (“Exchange”) that would permit Winklevoss Bitcoin Shares (“Shares”) issued by the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust (“Trust”) to be listed and traded on … Continue Reading
On June 2nd, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the “CFTC”) announced an enforcement order and settlement with BFXNA Inc. d/b/a Bitfinex, an online platform for exchanging and trading cryptocurrencies (the “Platform”). This posting will summarize that order with the goal of helping our readers make sense of the current state of the law with respect to … Continue Reading
Financial technologies like the block chain and related distributed ledger platforms are the source of much discussion and debate in today’s legal and finance industry publications. Some commentators feel that these technologies will be completely revolutionary, while other commentators feel that “the fad” will pass. … Continue Reading
Earlier today, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) published a notice announcing that its Technology Advisory Committee (“TAC”) will hold a public meeting on January 26th to discuss issues related to blockchain and the potential application of distributed ledger technology to the derivatives market. In addition to the blockchain related issues, the TAC will … Continue Reading
On September 24th, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) settled charges against TeraExchange LLC, a provisionally registered bitcoin swap execution facility (SEF). The charges stem from a non-deliverable forward (“NDF”) contract based on the relative value of the U.S. Dollar and Bitcoin (the Bitcoin swap) executed over that SEF. Background: Forwards and NDFs A … Continue Reading
