With the flurry of subpoenas and investigations into companies in the blockchain space that has erupted in the first eight months of this year, 2018 is on track to be "the year of the crypto investigation."

Daniel Payne of Murphy & McGonigle’s FinTech & Blockchain Practice traces how the digital assets and ICOs moved from “the year of the ICO” in 2017 to what shapes up to be “the year of the crypto investigation” in 2018 in an article that appears in Law360’s Expert Analysis section.

In case the intrepid and hardy souls bravely blazing entrepreneurial paths in the New World of virtual currencies do not have enough regulatory hazards to navigate, one few seem to have considered to date is the possible application of the Model State Commodity Code (“Model Code”). Depending on how its thirty-three year old provisions are interpreted, the Model Code’s prohibition on the sale of commodities for speculative or investments may possibly be applied to some virtual currency businesses.

Murphy & McGonigle announced today that it will host CryptoLex 2018, an inaugural FinTech and blockchain conference that will clarify and provide the most up-to-date guidance on the legal and regulatory framework impacting companies utilizing blockchain, digital ledger technology and cryptocurrencies.