Legal Seminar, Denver, CO
Ransomware • Cryptocurrency payments are the medium of choice for ransomware payments. – Exchange of cash is a risk point. – Economic constraints applicable to criminal actors • Some consultants dealing with ransomware incidents maintain a store of bitcoin for payments on behalf of customers. – If you routinely make payments, are you a MSB? – What about risks of violating sanction regime, as identity of payee and location are unknown? Coin offerings and investor protection • Security or Commodity? Or both, depending on who you ask? – For purposes of CFTC, virtual currency traders may be dealing in commodities, thereby allowing intervention to prevent fraud. See CFTC v. McDonnell, 287 F.Supp.3d 213 (EDNY 2018). • This was not a futures trade, but a “contract of sale of any commodity in interstate commerce” 7 USC § 9(1) • This allows concurrent jurisdiction for the SEC and CFTC to the extent that the SEC finds that a security is involved; CFTC has exclusive jurisdiction over futures
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