The SEC's Division of Corporation Finance issued both a "Framework for 'Investment Contract' Analysis of Digital Assets" and a no-action letter relating to a blockchain-based consumptive token on April 3, 2019.  The Framework is intended to be a plain English description of how the SEC staff applies the so-called Howey test to determine if a digital asset is a security under the federal securities laws.  It also adddresses the concept of mutability of a digital asset whereby a digital asset initially issued as a security later converts to a digital asset that is not a security because of the digital asset's use on a fully-functional platform, among other things.

The Division also issued a no-action letter to an air charter services company, TurnKey Jet, Inc.  The no-action letter permits TurnKey to issue a consumptive/utility token, subject to the criteria set out in the letter.

A bipartisan bill has just been introduced in the Senate that would significantly expand the remedies available to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Enforcement Division. Introduced on March 14 by Sens. Mark Warner, D.-Va., and John Kennedy, R.-La., the Securities Fraud Enforcement and Investor Compensation Act would, for the first time in the SEC’s 85-year history, allow it to pursue the broad remedy of restitution, at least in cases against members of the securities industry.

Law continues to be one of the least diverse professions in the United States, and the challenges of creating an inclusive legal environment continue. 

Michelle Bradford, a member of the firm’s White Collar Defense, Investigations & Compliance Counseling Practice, will receive a 2019 Leadership in Law Award from The Daily Record, a news source and publication that covers Maryland legal and business.

Two Murphy & McGonigle lawyers will be featured speakers at SIFMA’s 2019 C&L Annual Seminar, taking place Mar. 25-27 in Phoenix, AZ.

On the one year anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Cyan Inc. v. Beaver County Employees Retirement Fund, James Goldfarb and Gaurav Talwar take a look at the impact the ruling has had on Securities Act class actions filed in state courts in this Expert Analysis article from Law360. 

Katherine Cooper of the firm’s leading FinTech & Blockchain Practice served as an author on the American Bar Association’s Innovative Digital Products Process Committee’s newly published white paper, “Digital and Digitized Assets: Federal and State Jurisdictional Issues.”