The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has requested to seal the infamous Hinman Speech documents, claiming that they are not relevant to the court’s summary judgment decision. The Motion to Seal Summary Judgment Document was filed by the SEC on Dec. 22, requesting the sealing of various information and documents, most notably the Hinman Speech documents. The Hinman Speech documents refer to the speech given by former SEC Corporation Finance Division Director William Hinman at the Yahoo Finance All Markets Summit in June 2018, where he reportedly stated that Ether (ETH), the native token of the Ethereum blockchain, …

Crypto exchange OKX has released its second proof-of-reserves on its website, only a month after releasing its first one. Haider Rafique, the chief marketing officer of OKX, shared on Twitter that the crypto exchange is committed to sharing its reserve status every month. NEW #OKX #proofofreserves published TODAY. This is our 2nd PoR published and we commit to publishing monthly ✅ A quick overview of our PoR and new features.... — Haider (@Haider) December 23, 2022 The announcement also included the rollout of a new feature that allows “users to view OKX reserve ratios for new and historical data,” self-verify …

Dan Berkovitz, general counsel for the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, said he will be leaving the agency after more than a year. In a Dec. 22 announcement, the SEC said Berkovitz will depart on Jan. 31. A former commissioner with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Berkovitz joined the agency in November 2021. At the time, he said he planned to work with SEC chair Gary Gensler on a “regulatory agenda that will enhance investor protection.” "After thirty-four years of public service, it is time for me to pursue new and different challenges and opportunities," said Berkovitz. It's unclear …

A senior official from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission has warned investors to be “very wary” about relying on a crypto company’s “proof-of-reserves.” “We’re warning investors to be very wary of some of the claims that are being made by crypto companies,” said SEC’s acting chief accountant Paul Munter in a Dec. 22 interview with The Wall Street Journal. A number of crypto firms have commissioned “proof-of-reserves” audits since the collapse of crypto exchange FTX, aiming to quell concerns over their own exchange’s financial soundness. However, Munter said the results of these audits isn’t necessarily an indicator that …

Bullish, a crypto firm that came to public attention in July 2021 for seemingly being unclear on what products or services it was offering, has announced the termination of a deal aimed at taking the company public. In a Dec. 22 announcement, Bullish said it had reached a mutual agreement with Far Peak Acquisition to no longer merge in a deal for a listing on the New York Stock Exchange. Bullish chair Brendan Blumer, also the CEO of Block.one, cited the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s work to “lay new digital asset frameworks and clarify industry-specific disclosure and accounting …

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have hit former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison and former FTX co-founder Gary Wang with fresh fraud charges. The new charges from the SEC and CFTC come as the pair plead guilty to federal fraud charges filed by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) earlier on Dec. 22. SEC states that Ellison and Wang were charged for their role in the "multiyear scheme to defraud equity investors in FTX,” with the SEC also investigating whether other securities laws were violated as well. The SEC alleges …

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a complaint against Thor Technologies and its cofounder and CEO David Chin in U.S. District Court in San Francisco on Dec. 21. The SEC claimed that Thor’s 2018 initial coin offering (ICO) constituted an unregistered securities sale under the Securities Act of 1933. Thor Technologies raised $2.6 million from 1,600 investors between March and May 2018 through the sale of its Thor (THOR) coin. About 200 of the 1,600 investors lived in the United States. Not all of them were accredited investors. The SEC claimed in the suit that the sale …

If you saw the returns in my crypto portfolio this year, you would take a pass on my predictions for the direction of the cryptocurrency market. So, I will stick to what I know and share some regulatory predictions for the crypto industry. Few legislative changes A few minor victories will logroll small legislative fixes into “must pass” bills like the defense authorization or omnibus spending bills. The top candidate would be a de minimis exemption for smaller crypto transactions to exempt users from capital gains tax liability every time they purchase a coffee with crypto. The protection for noncustodial …

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has pushed for stricter regulations on centralized crypto actors, but says decentralized protocols should be allowed to flourish given that open-source code and smart contracts are alrea“the ultimate form of disclosure.” Armstrong shared his views on cryptocurrency regulation in a Dec. 20 Coinbase blog where he proposed how regulators can help “restore trust” and move the industry forward as the market continues to recover from the damage done by FTX and its shock collapse. But decentralized protocols aren’t part of that equation, the Coinbase CEO emphasized. “Decentralized arrangements do not involve intermediaries [and] open-source code and …

Welcome to Law Decoded, your weekly digest of all the major developments in the field of regulation. The FTX drama escalated last week when the Royal Bahamas Police Force arrested its former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, at the request of the United States government. Within hours, politicians, crypto executives and influencers had all booted up their Twitter apps to comment on the arrest of the former CEO, who had to miss his testimony before the U.S. Congress. However, the text of SBF’s planned testimony was obtained by the media, wherein he blamed the inclusion of FTX.US in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy …

The Nigerian government will reportedly soon pass a law that will recognize the usage of Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies as a means to keep up to date with “global practices.” The news was reported by Nigerian-based masthead Punch Newspapers on Dec. 18 following an interview with House of Representatives Committee on Capital Markets chairman Babangida Ibrahim. The report stated that if the Investments and Securities Act, 2007 (Amendment) Bill is signed into law it would allow the local Securities and Exchange Commission to “recognize cryptocurrency and other digital funds as capital for investment.” Ibrahim stressed the need for Nigeria …

United States Banking Committee chairman Sherrod Brown has suggested that the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) should perhaps consider a ban on cryptocurrencies. Brown’s comments were made in a Dec. 18 appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” although the Senator quickly added that a ban would be difficult to enforce. “We want them to do what they need to do at the same time, maybe banning it, although banning it is very difficult because it would go offshore, and who knows how that would work.” Earlier, in response to a host's question about Senator …