Crypto Litigation & Enforcement: H1 2024 – Key Takeaways and Updates

The beginning of this year brought several legal milestones in the world of crypto litigation and enforcement. In the first live installment of our quarterly update webinar, we discussed how:

• The Howey test continues to take center stage in decisions like Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) v. Coinbase and TerraForm v. SEC, joining the growing ranks of courts addressing whether crypto transactions are “investment contracts.”

• The SEC is pushing for harsh penalties, including in SEC v. Ripple, where the SEC sought a permanent injunction and billions in penalties.

• Crypto is everywhere and nowhere, a claim the court addressed in SEC v. Binance, finding Binance customers plausibly alleged purchases were domestic, despite Binance’s position that it is effectively stateless.

• Crypto is coming after the SEC in a series of industry-backed lawsuits challenging the SEC’s authority.

• DOJ continues to make moves, with the sentencing of Binance’s CEO and developments in prosecutions relating to mixers and privacy protocols.

Interested in summer school? For a deeper dive into these and other developments shaping the crypto landscape, watch the webinar recording here.

Fenwick’s crypto team is hard at work sizing up the next quarterly update. You can be sure we’re digesting Judge Jackson’s decision in Binance, the crypto implications of the Supreme Court’s administrative law decisions, and the SEC’s enforcement action relating to decentralized finance, or defi, in SEC v. Consensys.

We plan to address all that and more in the next installment of our quarterly Crypto Litigation & Enforcement Review series coming this fall. Don’t miss it—subscribe to Fenwick’s fintech updates to get the invite.