Our Blockchain & Digital Assets Team offers a snapshot sample of significant recent developments by a panoply of federal agencies and departments that represent the expanding array of enforcement tools used by federal regulators in the digital assets space in recent months.
- Multiple agencies are joining forces and coordinating efforts to bring actions against crypto companies
- Several agencies have created new divisions specifically for crypto-asset investigations and prosecutions
- Expect more “regulation by enforcement” until Congress and the states can pass legislation codifying agencies’ powers
Cryptocurrency is no longer on the fringe of the financial services industry. With over $1 trillion in market cap, star-studded Super Bowl ads, and an endless supply of frontpage headlines, there is no denying that crypto has entered the mainstream. The same is increasingly true for other digital assets and blockchain-based technologies, such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs). While the federal government largely took a “wait and see” approach to these emerging financial technologies over the last decade, the pace of enforcement activity by multiple agencies touching these spaces has been ramping up and filling the void caused by the absence of a comprehensive regulatory framework.
Following President Biden’s Executive Order on Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets issued in March (covered in a prior Alston & Bird advisory), there has been a flurry…
