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1 month ago | 
natlawreview.com | Jonathan Schmalfeld
Securities and Exchange Commission drops cases against Coinbase and Uniswap, Bybit suffers $1.4B hack, and Brian Quintenz is nominated to lead the CFTC
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Jan 8, 2025 | 
natlawreview.com | Jonathan Schmalfeld
The legal landscape surrounding blockchain technology underwent dramatic shifts in 2024, particularly in the United States, offering both remarkable opportunities and substantial compliance challenges. Governments introduced sweeping regulations, enforcement actions intensified and pivotal court rulings sent ripples across the crypto ecosystem. Throughout the year, the Polsinelli Blockchain+ team tracked these developments in our Bi-Weekly BitBlog updates.
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Dec 20, 2024 | 
jdsupra.com | Jonathan Schmalfeld
With Bitcoin hitting record highs and breaking a barrier long seen as aspirational, and with a new administration making key appointments, the year is ending with much excitement and momentum for the digital assets industry. A surge in M&A activity among Web3 companies is setting the stage for 2024, as these companies seek to solidify their business strategies and position themselves for growth in 2025. However, not all year-end developments are positive.
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Dec 5, 2024 | 
natlawreview.com | Jonathan Schmalfeld
The Polsinelli Blockchain+ team took a break from the usual Bi-Weekly updates for the Thanksgiving holiday, but the Web3 legal developments did not. There was a significant ruling out of the 5th Circuit, which has major implications on the legal treatment of immutable software code and agency actions after Loper Bright generally.
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Nov 14, 2024 | 
natlawreview.com | Jonathan Schmalfeld
After a relatively quiet October for Web3 legal developments, November has kicked off with significant activity, primarily centered around ongoing lawsuits and regulatory enforcement actions. In addition to these legal developments, the recent election results indicate a shift in the U.S. administration, with incoming leadership signaling a strong focus on crypto and digital assets.
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Oct 31, 2024 | 
natlawreview.com | Jonathan Schmalfeld
It’s fitting that our second October Web3 legal update arrives on Halloween, as many in the industry might find the current legal landscape for digital asset products and services quite spooky. While the past few weeks have seen relatively few major legal developments, there have been significant updates in ongoing litigation and intense maneuvering for the upcoming administration, regardless of who it may be.
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Sep 27, 2024 | 
natlawreview.com | Jonathan Schmalfeld
The last two weeks have seen a flurry of Congressional hearings addressing key digital asset issues, alongside several noteworthy consent judgments against industry participants from the SEC. These fast-paced developments are expected to continue through the end of September, when both the CFTC and SEC conclude their fiscal years, as they strive to optimize their results for 2024.
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Sep 13, 2024 | 
natlawreview.com | Jonathan Schmalfeld
In the last few weeks, decisions by regulatory agencies and courts overseeing cryptocurrency disputes have dominated the Web3 legal news. This can be expected to continue, even as Congress comes back from its August break, as those agencies look to close out their financial year on September 30 and look to set budgets and agendas for the next year.
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Aug 29, 2024 | 
natlawreview.com | Jonathan Schmalfeld
As Congress is on its August recess, litigation over digital asset issues continued with major developments in the Yuga Labs trademark case and the SEC cases against Kraken and Consensys. While these matters all involve factual underpinnings specific to blockchain technology, the resulting rulings will have implications far surpassing the specific facts of those cases, including how courts rule on certain trademark and venue disputes going forward.
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Aug 15, 2024 | 
natlawreview.com | Jonathan Schmalfeld
As the end of summer approaches, litigation in the digital asset industry has remained hot. In the SEC’s cases against various exchanges, ongoing discovery fights are starting to play out in court filings, and one can expect these fights to remain contentious throughout the various lawsuits. Meanwhile, the case against Ripple Labs has finally reached its conclusion (for now), and California has taken the step of being the first state to begin moving car titles to the blockchain.
