An ECON draft report on digital finance recommends legislative action in relation to cryptoassets and cyber resilience and a framework for digital onboarding. By Stuart Davis, Sam Maxson, and Anna Lewis-Martinez On 4 June 2020, the European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON) published a draft report setting out its recommendations to the European Commission on digital finance, including emerging risks in cryptoassets and regulatory and supervisory challenges in the area of…

Latham fintech partners explore tokenization and distributed business models with guest speakers from Energy Web Foundation, ConsenSys, and The LAO. Tokenization of assets, as well as the innovation of blockchain-based distributed business models, have the potential to unlock asset liquidity, create more efficient, trustless and transparent processes, and reshape systems and entire industries by minimizing or removing the role of intermediaries. What is the current state of projects leveraging these technologies, and what relevant legal…

Latham Fintech partner Jenny Cieplak discussed consortium governance on a panel hosted by WEF at the Consensus: Distributed Conference. Jenny Cieplak, a member of Latham & Watkins’ Fintech Industry Group, recently discussed blockchain consortia governance issues as part of a panel hosted by the World Economic Forum (WEF) at the Consensus: Distributed conference. A replay of the panel discussion is available on the Consensus: Distributed website, and the segment focused on consortia governance…

MAS confirms regulatory approach for derivative contracts on payment tokens. By Farhana Sharmeen and Marc Jia Renn Tan On 15 May 2020, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (the MAS) issued its response to feedback about its proposed regulatory approach for derivative contracts that reference payment tokens as underlying assets (Payment Token Derivatives), confirming that it will regulate Payment Token Derivatives offered to Singapore investors through approved exchanges. (See MAS’ current list of approved …

The report encourages the G20 to consider a broad set of supervisory principles when evaluating global stablecoin arrangements. By Todd Beauchamp, Stuart Davis, Christian F. McDermott, Yvette D. Valdez, Stephen P. Wink, Simon Hawkins, and Deric Behar On April 14, 2020, the G20’s Financial Stability Board (FSB) published a consultation on the regulation, supervision, and oversight of privately issued global stablecoins (Addressing the Regulatory, Supervisory and Oversight Challenges …

The resource aims to help businesses create more resilient supply chains and trusted data by responsibly deploying blockchain technology. By Stuart Davis, Fiona Maclean, Andrew Moyle, Jenny Cieplak, Mitch Rabinowitz and Masha Smith The World Economic Forum has launched a new, first-of-its-kind resource — Redesigning Trust: Blockchain Deployment Toolkit (Toolkit) — to help organizations responsibly develop and deploy blockchain technology based on their business needs. The resource aims to address the…

SEC’s motion for a preliminary injunction is granted, prohibiting delivery of Telegram tokens to purchasers. By Stephen P. Wink, Shaun Musuka, Carolina Bernal and Deric Behar On March 24, the Court in the Southern District of New York sided with the SEC and granted an injunction prohibiting Telegram Group Inc. and TON Issuer Inc. (together, Telegram) from delivering Telegram’s digital token, “Grams,” to 175 entities and high-net-worth individuals (Initial Purchasers). As we previously …