On May 3, 2022, the SEC announced that it was renaming the Division of Enforcement’s Cyber Unit as the Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit, and significantly increasing its size with the addition of 20 new positions.[1]  In the same announcement, the SEC articulated specific areas of focus within the digital assets space, including:  (i) crypto asset offerings; (ii) crypto asset exchanges; (iii) crypto asset lending and staking products; (iv) decentralized finance (“DeFi”) platforms; (v) non-fungible tokens (“NFTs”); and (vi) stablecoins.
Continue Reading SEC Nearly Doubles Size of Digital Asset Enforcement Team

The SEC and a consortium of 32 states recently announced a $100 million settlement with BlockFi Lending LLC over its crypto lending product, BlockFi Interest Accounts. The SEC alleged BlockFi had violated the securities laws by failing to register its interest-bearing crypto lending product as a security, failing to register itself as an investment company,