SEC Amends Whistleblower Rules to Aid Tipsters

SEC Amends Whistleblower Rules to Incentivize Whistleblower Tips

The Securities and Exchange Commission today adopted two amendments to the rules governing its whistleblower program. The first rule change allows the Commission to pay whistleblowers for their information and assistance in connection with non-SEC actions in additional circumstances. The second rule affirms the Commission’s authority to consider the dollar amount of a potential award for the limited purpose of increasing an award but not to lower an award.

“In 2010, Congress under the Dodd-Frank Act directed the SEC to establish a whistleblower program, which to date has greatly aided the Commission’s work to protect investors,” said SEC Chair Gary Gensler. “Today’s amendments enact two changes to help enhance the whistleblower program. The first amendment expands the circumstances in which a whistleblower who assisted in a related action can receive an award from the Commission for that related action rather than from the other agency’s whistleblower program. Under the second amendment, when the Commission considers the size of the would-be award as grounds to change the award amount, it can do so only to increase the award, and not to decrease it. I think that these rules will strengthen our whistleblower program. That helps protect investors.”

A Who’s Who of Silicon Valley Lawyers Up for the Musk-Twitter Trial

Mr. Musk enthusiastically agreed to buy Twitter in April for $44 billion, but has since tried to back out of the blockbuster deal, leading to lawsuits and recriminations. Both sides are set for a showdown in Delaware Chancery Court in October over whether Mr. Musk needs to stick with the acquisition. The torrent of legal demands in the case has forced a who’s who of Silicon Valley to now lawyer up, creating a heyday for top-tier law firms.

***

“Every firm in the Valley is salivating like dogs trying to get in on that action,” said Carol Langford, a professor of legal ethics at the University of San Francisco.

Crypto Insurance Policies ‘Popping Up’ to Meet Frenetic Demand

Companies this year are scrambling to obtain cryptocurrency insurance as a hedge against catastrophic losses, paying dearly for relatively limited protection as they venture into the world of high-risk, high-reward digital assets.

“We’re seeing crypto risk and coverage inquiries from all kinds of companies,” said Jackie Quintal, a director at insurance broker Marsh McLennan. “Crypto is popping up all across financial services, tech, fintech, and other parts of the economy.”

Tether Says Audit Is Still Months Away as Crypto Market Falters

This year’s slump in digital assets is pressuring crypto companies to show investors that their money is safe. So far, they haven’t delivered.

Many crypto companies lack the basic financial guardrails that help protect investors in traditional banks. Firms often don’t publish financial statements, or have anyone check their books. Even if they are audited, there are no agreed accounting standards for digital assets.

Take Tether, the company behind the world’s largest stablecoin. In recent months, it launched a marketing blitz of blogs and press releases, touting its transparency, after a series of crypto firm failures rattled investor confidence in it. Tether is designed to grease the rails of the roughly $1 trillion cryptocurrency market by promising each token can be redeemed for $1. Market observers have long questioned whether the firm’s reserves are sufficient and have been demanding audited information.

The company has been promising an audit since at least 2017….

More Than Half Of All Bitcoin Trades Are Fake

Within the emerging and turbulent market for cryptocurrencies, where there are no fewer than 10,000 tokens, bitcoin, is the great granddaddy, the blue-chip, representing 40% of the $1 trillion in crypto assets outstanding. Bitcoin is crypto’s gateway drug. An estimated 46 million adult Americans already own it according to New York Digital Investment Group, and an increasing number of institutional investors and corporations are warming to the nascent alternative asset.

But can you trust what your crypto exchange or e-brokerage reports about trading in the most important digital currency?

Wall Street pushes return to office as SEC praises remote work

The SEC sheriff was quizzed on the thorny subject by anchor David Faber, who specifically cited JPMorgan chief executive Jamie Dimon’s efforts to get his bankers back to the office full time.

“It’s Friday in August. Clearly you seem to be home. … I’m one of these ‘I think people are better in the office people.’ I guess I agree with Jamie Dimon. I don’t know where you stand on that but is the SEC back to the office?” Faber said from the CNBC studio.

While Gensler acknowledged a “benefit to being in the office,” he was quick to add SEC staffers were able to be fully remote as long as they wished — and applauded his staff for performing so well at home.

“We’ve worked with our bargaining unit, with the union representatives, we moved to voluntary remote. That’s where we are,” Gensler said. “Compliments to the SEC staff of 4,500 people who have been able to be a cop on the beat.”

Grayscale, Disclosing SEC Queries, Says Cryptos XLM, ZEC, ZEN May be Securities

Grayscale Investments LLC has been fielding questions from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over the firm’s “securities law analysis” of tokens in some of its less-popular crypto trusts.

The inquiry, which Grayscale disclosed in little-noticed filings made in June and mid-August, casts a shadow over the trusts’ viability at a time when the world’s largest digital asset manager is already dealing with a precipitous decline in its assets’ value due to the ongoing crypto winter.