While the SEC's Division of Corporate Finance has begun to explore ways to distinguish between utility tokens and securities, Arizona and Wyoming have already proposed legislation designed to provide a more definitive framework to ICO regulation.  The proposed legislation illustrates the trade-off that regulators are faced with: fostering the growth of the ICO market by providing clear-cut rules or ensuring investor protection by adopting a policy-driven approach that suffers from line-drawing problems.

Joseph Facciponti, a former prosecutor at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York with in-house experience in the financial sector, has joined the firm of Murphy & McGonigle as a shareholder in its New York office.

Former federal prosecutor Joseph Facciponti has joined white-collar boutique Murphy & McGonigle in New York as a shareholder in its cybersecurity practice.

Murphy & McGonigle partner Timothy Peterson comments in CoinDesk on trends in the ICO regulatory and enforcement environment.

For the sixth year in a row, U.S. News & World Report and Best Lawyers selected Murphy & McGonigle as a National Tier 1 Law Firm. This year, we were honored in Securities Regulation, Securities Litigation, and Corporate Law. Only 25 firms received National Tier 1 recognition in all three areas. We are the youngest and smallest firm among those 25 listed, by far.

A slew of articles has appeared recently about the growing use of artificial intelligence (“AI”) and neural networks for securities trading.  Most of these articles conflate basic algorithm refinement with deep learning and neural networks.  As I noted in an article I wrote last December, I am confident that some forms of deep learning are being used by a few hedge funds and proprietary traders, and that such use will grow quickly over time.  The notion, however, that it is taking hold on a widespread basis seems grounded on a misunderstanding of the nature of deep learning.