Cryptocurrency

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On April 21, 2025, Paul Atkins, President Trump’s nominee, was officially sworn in as the 34th Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Atkins, who previously served as an SEC Commissioner from 2002 to 2008 during the George W. Bush administration, brings extensive prior SEC experience to his new post. In many ways that are already in evidence at the SEC in the early days of the Trump administration, the new leadership is likely to result in many significant changes in direction at the agency.Continue Reading Paul Atkins Chair Sworn In as SEC Chair

Paul Atkins, President Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as SEC Chair, has not even yet assumed his new office – his nomination apparently is scheduled to go before the relevant Senate committee on March 27 – but big changes are already underway at the agency under Mark Uyeda, the agency’s acting Chair. Indeed, based on the changes so far, a group of five leading academics including Columbia Law Professor John Coffee Jr. and calling themselves the “Shadow SEC” has already raised the alarm, warning in a March 13, 2025 post on the CLS Blue Sky Blog  that as a result of current and proposed staffing and budget cuts,  the agency is well on the way to becoming a “shell of its former self,” as it “becomes an agency with little power, capacity, or independent judgment.”Continue Reading Big Changes are Already Underway at the SEC

The number of federal court securities class action lawsuit filings increased in 2024 for the second year in a row, to the highest level since 2020. The increased number of federal court securities suit filings during the past year is due to several factors, including continuing filings relating to ongoing trends such as new lawsuit filings relating to SPACs, COVID-related suits, and cryptocurrencies, as discussed further below.Continue Reading Federal Court Securities Class Action Lawsuit Filings Increased in 2024

Scott Schechter
Paul Curley

Readers will recall that month when Cornerstone Research issued its annual report on securities class action lawsuit filings, the report showed that the number of crypto-related securities suits had soared, with 21 crypto-related suits filed in 2022, compared to only 11 in 2021. In the following guest post, Scott Schechter and Paul Curley take a look at this emerging new trend in securities class action lawsuit filings involving cryptocurrency and other digital asset-related securities suits. Scott and Paul are Partners in Kaufman Borgeest & Ryan’s Coverage Group in New York. I would like to thank Paul and Scott for allowing me to publish their article as a guest post on this site. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors on topics of interest to this blog’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is Paul and Scott’s guest post.Continue Reading Guest Post: Crypto is the New Frontier in Securities Fraud Litigation

By Monday morning of this week, two banks had failed in quick sequence, including the very high-profile collapse last week of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and the closure over the weekend of Signature Bank. SVB got hit with a securities class action lawsuit yesterday, so what had to happen next? Why, a securities suit against Signature Bank, of course. On Tuesday morning, the same plaintiffs’ law firm that sued SVB on Monday filed a separate securities class action lawsuit against Signature Bank and three of its executives. How much further any of this goes from here is the question on everyone’s minds. A copy of the Signature Bank complaint can be found here.Continue Reading SVB Got Sued, So, What Next? A Suit Against Signature Bank, Of Course

John Reed Stark

On February 27, 2020, the SEC announced that it had settled charges against the actor Steven Seagal on charges that he had failed to disclose compensation he received for promoting an initial coin offering. In the following guest post, John Reed Stark, President of John Reed Stark Consulting and former Chief of the SEC’s Office of Internet Enforcement, takes a look at three important takeaways from the SEC’s order against Seagal. A version of this article originally appeared on Securities Docket. I would like to thank John allowing me to publish his article as a guest post on this site. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors on topics of interest to this blog’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is John’s article.
Continue Reading Guest Post: Takeaways from the SEC’s Fight with Steven Seagal

John Reed Stark

In a February 14, 2019 order, Southern District of California Judge Gonzalo Curiel entered an order reversing his earlier decision on the same issue and concluding that the digital tokens offered by cryptocurrency company Blockvest LLC represented “securities” within the meaning of the federal securities laws. In the following guest post, John Reed Stark, President of John Reed Stark Consulting and former Chief of the SEC’s Office of Internet Enforcement, takes a look at Judge Curiel’s ruling and what it many mean for future securities litigation involving digital currency offerings. A version of this article previously was published on Securities Docket. I would like to thank John for allowing me to publish his article as a guest post. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors on topics of interest to this blog’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is John’s article.
Continue Reading Guest Post: Judge Reverses Blockvest Decision: ICOs are Securities

John Reed Stark

As the cryptocurrency phenomenon has developed, one of the interesting parts of the story has been the relationship between the digital currency firms and the lawyers that advise them. In the following guest post, John Reed Stark, President of John Reed Stark Consulting and former Chief of the SEC’s Office of Internet Enforcement, takes a look at a particular aspect of this lawyer-client relationship, the question of whether the lawyers should accept cryptocurrency in payment of fees. A version of this article originally appeared on Cybersecurity Docket. I would like to thank John for allowing me to publish his article on this site. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors on topics of interest to this blog’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is John’s article.
Continue Reading Guest Post: Why Law Firms Should Never Accept Their Fees in Cryptocurrency