Introduction On March 24, 2020, Judge P. Kevin Castel of the Southern District of New York granted the SEC’s motion for a preliminary injunction against Telegram’s distribution of GRAM tokens for its new TON blockchain to investors. As a U.S. corporate/securities attorney, I have been deep in the trenches of…

THE NEW LEGAL PRAXIS LeXpunK is law unchained from expectations — a disruptive new attorney praxis designed to grab lawyers by their neckties and drag them kicking and screaming into the 21st century. We believe: law is a public good and should be open to all law is dynamic and the practice…

The Growing Relevance of Decentralization to Law In recent years, “decentralization” has become an important concept for purposes of the law. Consider: Regulators such as the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) have recognized that the applicability of financial regulations to blockchain systems can depend on the degree of control people…

Introduction In various talks, tweets and papers, Professor Angela Walch has popularized her view that blockchain protocol developers are or should be deemed fiduciaries of blockchain network participants. While many of her concerns with blockchain technology are valid, her specific view that fiduciary duties do or should apply to free open…

A Philosophy of Securities Laws for Tokenized Networks — Recap of Past Parts+ Introduction In Part 1, I summarized the current state of the blockchain industry and attributed much of its troubles to conflicts of interest, contradictions and suboptimal path dependencies arising from securities law avoidance tactics. …

A Philosophy of Securities Laws for Tokenized Networks — Thanks (in no particular order) to Ameen Soleimani, Peter Pan, Marc Goldich, Drew Hinkes, Olta Andoni, Marc Boiron, Lewis Cohen, Grant Gulovsen, Adrian Cortez, Jake Brukhman and the rest of the Hardcore CryptoLaw crew for feedback on the ideas in this Part 3. What Are “Blockchain Foundations”? As we discussed…

A Philosophy of Securities Laws for Tokenized Networks — Tokenized Network Equity Implicates the Securities Laws I’m going to be blunt: in its early stages the tokens on pretty much every tokenized network meet one or more tests for being securities and, more to the point, implicate just about every policy concern underlying the securities laws. Phew. Glad we…

A Philosophy of Securities Laws for Tokenized Networks — Introduction I am a U.S. corporate/securities lawyer who has spent (wasted?) much of the last three years contemplating how securities laws apply to tokenized blockchain networks. And my question is this: Where is all the dankness!!??? That’s what I want to know. Crypto culture is broken, and I blame securities…

A Simple, Commonsense Guide Introduction There is growing recognition that U.S. securities laws are applicable to most fundraising activities undertaken by developers of blockchain technologies, particularly when they sell pre-mined blockchain tokens to the general public at an early stage of development. Thus, many blockchain aficionados are aware that ICOs…