A Tale of Two Token Offerings: Lessons from Blockstack (Reg A+) And Telegram (Reg D)

(*) Some of the biggest news of the past half-year on the US crypto regulatory front has been (1) Blockstack’s successful (qualified) “Reg A+” filing with the SEC and associated offering, and (2) the SEC’s lawsuit and injunction against Telegram, blocking distribution of their “Grams” tokens, sold pursuant to earlier “SAFTs” (Simple Agreements for Future […]

“Decentralized” No More — SEC Drops Proposed Blockchain Test?

Another takeaway of mine from the SEC’s April 3rd releases was noting a striking shift in gears from the SEC.  Namely, there was a conspicuous lack of emphasis on the “degree of decentralization” of blockchain token-issuers as applied to the security-vs-utility analysis of their tokens (I didn’t mention this in my earlier post, to keep it as short […]

No, Airdrops Weren’t Just “Legalized” in the U.S.

A November 27, 2018 order in the case of ICO-gone-wrong SEC v. BlockVest, LLC (SoCal U.S. District Court), caused quite a buzz, for the ostensible holding that it (tentatively, of course, as this was not a final order) deemed the “airdrop” method of token distribution (i.e., free giveaways) permissible in the U.S.  The order denied an asset freeze that […]