By Jim Bulling & Felix Charlesworth
On 18 March 2019, the Federal Australian Government announced its plan to establish the national blockchain roadmap (Roadmap) which intends to focus developing regulation, skills and capacity building, innovation, investment and international competitiveness in the emerging local blockchain industry.
Read MoreOn March 13, 2019, the American Bar Association’s Derivatives and Futures Law Committee published a white paper called Digital and Digitized Assets: Federal and State Jurisdictional Issues. As stated in its preface, this White Paper was prepared by members of the Jurisdiction Working Group of the Innovative Digitized Products and Processes Subcommittee (“IDPPS”) and their colleagues, who generously contributed substantial time and effort to this ambitious undertaking. The authors have sought to provide a comprehensive explanation of federal and state laws that may apply to the creation, offer, use and trading of digital assets in the United States, along with summaries of key initiatives outside the United States. The White Paper also recommends an analytic framework for considering potential issues of jurisdictional overlap between the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission under the separate federal statutes they each are responsible for administering.
Read MoreOn March 6th, the Chamber of Digital Commerce held its Fourth Annual D.C. Blockchain Summit. One of the first panels featured a discussion on the current and future contours of the digital asset regulatory regime with Daniel Gorfine, Director of LabCFTC; Kavita Jain, FINRA’s Director of the Office of Emerging Regulatory Issues; Jessica Renier, Senior Advisor on Domestic Finance for the Treasury Department; and Valerie Szczepanik, the SEC’s Senior Advisor for Digital Assets & Innovation.
Ms. Szczepanik explained that the SEC staff is developing guidance regarding digital assets but declined to provide a timetable for its release. She noted that whether a digital asset is a security will, as it does now, depend on whether it is an investment contract in light of its individual facts and circumstances. Ultimately, the SEC is seeking to promote financial innovation, capital formation, and wealth creation but in balance with investor protections.
Read MoreOn March 6th, the Chamber of Digital Commerce held its Fourth Annual D.C. Blockchain Summit. SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce and CFTC Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo headlined the event. After the cheers for “Crypto Mom” and “Crypto Dad” died down, Commissioner Peirce and Chairman Ginacarlo shared their general views on next steps for digital asset regulation and principles by which regulators should oversee emerging financial technologies.
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