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