By Jim Bulling, Felix Charlesworth and Wendy Li
With the prevalence of smartphones in everyday life, momentum has been building for the use of biometrics to replace traditional passwords. To date, the most popular biometric authentication is fingerprint technology, followed by facial recognition technology. Less used types of biometrics also include eye-scanning, heartbeats and voice pattern.
Read MoreBy Jim Bulling and Rebecca Gill
On 1 August 2019, the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) published its Compliance Update (Update) which sets out its guidance for listed entities that are proposing to engage in cryptocurrency-related activities, being initial coin offerings (ICOs) and initial exchange offerings (IEOs).
The Update notes that many tokens offered to investors in Australia as part of an ICO or an IEO may be regulated by the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) as the tokens may constitute interests in managed investment schemes. As such, listed entities should seek legal advice prior to engaging in cryptocurrency-related activities.
Read MoreJeremy McLaughlin and Dan S. Cohen
Effective January 1, 2020, Rhode Island will join the growing list of states that require entities to obtain a money transmitter license to provide certain services involving cryptocurrency (a.k.a. virtual currency). The Rhode Island General Assembly recently amended the state’s money transmitter law to require licensing for “currency transmission,” which is defined to include “maintaining control of virtual currency or transactions in virtual currency on behalf of others.” Similar to other states, the revised statute defines “control” as “the power to execute unilaterally or prevent indefinitely a virtual currency transaction.”
Read MoreBy Jim Bulling and Rebecca Gill
The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has released its Feedback and Final Guidance (Guidance) on crypto-assets, specifying when certain types of crypto-assets fall under existing categories. The Guidance is in response to the FCA’s consultation paper from January 2019 on crypto-assets. As we have previously blogged, the consultation paper looked at whether crypto-assets could be considered ‘specified investments’ under the Regulated Activities Order (RAO) and other instruments, and therefore should be regulated.
Read MoreBack in 2018, four different courts in the U.S. held that cryptocurrencies were commodities. This did not cause a huge ripple in the cryptocurrency community because the Commodity Exchange Act does not apply to retail commodity sales if the “actual delivery” of the commodity occurs within 28 days after the execution of the transaction, and generally cryptocurrencies are delivered in merely a few days or less.
Read MoreBy Jim Bulling, Felix Charlesworth and Charles McDonald
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has touted further regulation of cryptocurrency markets. In their Consultation Paper (Paper) published on 3 July 2019, the FCA has announced it will begin the consultation process on its proposed move to ban the sale, marketing, and distribution to retail consumers of derivatives and exchange traded notes (ETNs) that reference certain types of cryptoassets.
Read MoreBy Jim Bulling and Charles McDonald
On 13 June 2019, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) released its paper into the New Payments Platform’s Functionality and Access (Paper). In it, the RBA expressed disappointment with the slow roll out of New Payments Platform’s (NPP) services and functionality. As a consequence, the RBA will continue to push the major banks to prioritise the roll-out of services to their customers to address functionality gaps as quickly as possible. The Paper also recommends that NPP Australia Ltd (as operator of the platform) should:
Read MoreJim Bulling and Felix Charlesworth
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) along with several other central banks, have provided their initial responses to the recent announcement by Facebook (in conjunction with businesses such as MasterCard, Spotify and PayPal) of its plans to create a new blockchain based currency and payment system known as Libra.
Read MoreBy Jeremy McLaughlin and Judie Rinearson
The Financial Action Task Force (“FATF”), an intergovernmental organization aimed at combatting money laundering and thwarting terrorist financing, recently issued final recommendations for the regulation of cryptocurrencies. Although the recommendations are not binding on members–it will be up to each of FATF’s 37 member countries to determine whether to enact the recommendations through legislation or regulation–it is expected that they will have widespread adoption and significant implications for the cryptocurrency industry.
Read MoreBy Jim Bulling, Edwin Tan and Andrew Fay
On 28 May 2019, the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) published Consultation Paper CR02/2019 (Paper), which identifies the risks and regulatory considerations associated with the trading of crypto-assets on crypto-asset trading platforms (CTPs). The Paper seeks input from industry participants amid a growing demand for an international approach to the regulation of crypto-assets, recently illustrated by the G20’s joint request for global regulators to monitor risks and consider multilateral responses in relation to crypt-assets as needed.
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