Murphy & McGonigle’s leading FinTech & Blockchain Practice is pleased to publish a new edition of “Who’s On the Block,” a roundup of blockchain conferences, trends and upcoming events.

Over the past week, regulators in both the United Kingdom and Hong Kong have voiced words of caution regarding varying virtual assets.  Both regulators were concerned in particular about the integrity of the cash markets for virtual assets and products giving retail investors both direct and indirect exposure to virtual assets.

With the flurry of subpoenas and investigations into companies in the blockchain space that has erupted in the first eight months of this year, 2018 is on track to be "the year of the crypto investigation."

Murphy & McGonigle’s leading FinTech & Blockchain Practice is pleased to publish the second edition of “Who’s On the Block,” a roundup of blockchain conferences, trends and upcoming events.

Murphy & McGonigle lawyers will be attending and speaking at Blockchain conferences around the country and internationally in the coming weeks. Who’s On the Block features a summary of the conferences, trends, thought leadership and sponsorships in which our leading FinTech & Blockchain Practice is involved.

Recent SEC enforcement action found that a digital token operated as an unregistered securities exchange. In a settlement, the token's founder agreed to disgorgement of $313,000 and a penalty of $75,000.

The SEC has launched a portal on its website to act as a clearinghouse for fintech related information.

On September 27, 2018, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission sued 1Pool Ltd. and Patrick Brunner for offering illegal leveraged, off-exchange commodity transactions to retail customers in the United States. 

On September 21, 2018, Congressman Tom Emmer (R-MN), co-chair of the Congressional Blockchain Caucus, announced his plans to introduce three pieces of legislation designed to support the use and development of blockchain technology in the United States. 

In case the intrepid and hardy souls bravely blazing entrepreneurial paths in the New World of virtual currencies do not have enough regulatory hazards to navigate, one few seem to have considered to date is the possible application of the Model State Commodity Code (“Model Code”). Depending on how its thirty-three year old provisions are interpreted, the Model Code’s prohibition on the sale of commodities for speculative or investments may possibly be applied to some virtual currency businesses.