Blockchain and the Law

Category Archives: AML/KYC

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CFTC Ooki DAO Enforcement Action Update: The Commission Responds

On September 22, 2022, the CFTC announced an order simultaneously filing and settling charges against bZeroX, LLC (“bZeroX”) and its creators for illegally offering leveraged and margined retail commodity transactions in digital assets, operating as an unregistered futures commission merchant and failing to conduct KYC on its customers. According to the CFTC, a month prior … Continue Reading

District Court Declines to Dismiss NFT “Insider Trading” Indictment against Former OpenSea Employee

In late October, a New York district court refused to dismiss the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) indictment against defendant Nathaniel Chastain, who was charged with wire fraud and money laundering relating to his using insider knowledge to purchase non-fungible tokens (NFTs) prior to them being featured on OpenSea, an online NFT marketplace, and later selling … Continue Reading

Proskauer’s Cross-Disciplinary Blockchain Group Hosts ‘Digital Assets in Business and Law’ Symposium

Back in 2013, the first cryptocurrency matter hit our desks. That was the beginning of the exponential growth of our digital assets practice. Recognizing the importance of the area, we launched this blog, Blockchain and the Law. In our first cluster of posts, we covered topics such as cryptocurrency taxation, blockchain and privacy, and issues … Continue Reading

New York Financial Regulator Brings First AML and Cybersecurity Enforcement Action against Licensed Crypto Trading Entity

In what is the New York Department of Financial Services’ (NYDFS) first enforcement action against a NYDFS-licensed “virtual currency business,” on August 1, 2022, the agency announced $30 million settlement with cryptocurrency investing platform Robinhood Crypto, LLC (“RHC”).  The settlement addressed  charges stemming from what the NYDFS cited as various deficiencies during 2019-20 of RHC’s … Continue Reading

Treasury Department Steps Up Its Counter-Ransomware Efforts and Simultaneously Issues New Sanctions Compliance Guidance for Virtual Currency Industry

Recently, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a bureau of the U.S. Treasury Department, released a report on ransomware trends stating that during the first half of 2021, 68 different ransomware variants extracted approximately $600 million from victims across the country. FinCEN identified Bitcoin as the most common ransomware-related payment method in reported transactions and … Continue Reading

SEC Chair’s Remarks Suggest Crypto is the “Wild West,” Signaling Future Enforcement and Desire for Enhanced Regulatory Authority

Gary Gensler, Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), attracted a lot of attention following his remarks at the Aspen Security Forum earlier this month, asking Congress for more authority “to write rules for and attach guardrails to crypto trading and lending” and opining that for the “volatile” industry to truly prosper it needs … Continue Reading

SEC Division of Examinations Releases Risk Alert for Digital Asset Securities

On February 26, 2020, the Security and Exchange Commission’s (“SEC”) Division of Examinations (the “Division”) published a Risk Alert, “The Division of Examinations’ Continued Focus on Digital Asset Securities.” In the Risk Alert, the Division offered insight into its current examination focus with respect to the activities of market participants, including investment advisers, concerning digital … Continue Reading

Trump Administration Plans to Introduce New AML Requirements for Cryptocurrencies

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin remarked before a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee three weeks ago that “significant new requirements at FinCEN” for cryptocurrencies would be introduced quickly, in response to Senator Maggie Hassan’s (D-NH) question regarding the Treasury Department’s proposed use of budget increases for anti-money laundering (AML) and counterterrorism efforts (video of the … Continue Reading

CFTC, FinCEN, and SEC Warn of Crypto AML Enforcement

Based on a recent regulatory statement, entities involved with cryptocurrency or digital assets should revisit their anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism obligations (AML/CFT) compliance under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). On October 11, the leaders of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), and the Securities and … Continue Reading

State-Level Legislation Anticipates Wide-Spread Business Use of Blockchain

On a daily basis, companies are announcing new developments on the adoption of blockchain in core business operations.  However, many of these use cases present unique legal issues.  In order to provide some clarity on some of these issues, and perhaps to offer a blockchain-friendly environment for the operation of blockchain companies, state legislatures around … Continue Reading
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