SEC's Initial Crypto Task Force Roundtable Set for Friday

How We Got Here and How We Get Out – Defining Security Status

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Crypto Task Force will host a series of roundtables to discuss key areas of interest in the regulation of crypto assets. The “Spring Sprint Toward Crypto Clarity” series will begin on March 21 with its inaugural roundtable, “How We Got Here and How We Get Out – Defining Security Status.”

The initial roundtable on March 21 is open to the public and will be held from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the SEC’s headquarters at 100 F Street NE, Washington, D.C. Please note that the number of in-person participants may be limited and visitors will be subject to security checks. The event will be streamed live on the SEC website, and a recording will be posted at a later date.

Paul Weiss Hit By Latest Broad Order

President Donald Trump has targeted Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in a broad order that seeks to punish the firm for the legal work of one of its former lawyers.

The order, signed Friday, suspends the security clearances of firm personnel, restricts their use in government buildings, and cuts off any government contracts with the firm, while its practices will be reviewed to ensure “compliance with civil rights laws against racial bias,” according to a White House fact sheet on the order.

The Friday order also criticizes “many” large law firms.

Saylor’s Strategy: buy higher, pump harder

At today’s bitcoin price of around $80,000, Strategy could amass another 262,500 bitcoins, bringing its total holdings to 3.6 per cent of all bitcoin in existence. According to JPMorgan research, “MicroStrategy’s bitcoin purchases alone accounted for 28 per cent of last year’s record capital inflow into crypto markets.” It’s no exaggeration to say that Strategy is not merely a major player but the market itself — a blue whale consuming all the available krill in the bitcoin ocean.[…]

Saylor has a penchant for making grandiose public statements. This latest cheeky piece of (self-) promotion is eye-catching not just for its bravado but for its potential regulatory implications. Legally, a company’s prospectus — replete with carefully lawyered risk factors — is meant to do all the talking. Public companies are not supposed to hype their stock offerings, and Saylor has previously tread a very fine line by championing bitcoin rather than Strategy stock itself. This latest post, however, is harder to explain away.

SEC Priorities Regarding Cybersecurity Enforcement: What Public Companies Need to Know Now in the Second Trump Administration

For public companies, the SEC’s announced focus on “fraudulent” cybersecurity disclosures potentially marks a likely shift away from SEC cybersecurity disclosure cases to date. The SEC’s cybersecurity disclosure actions have largely applied a consistent, but aggressive, approach in seeking negligence-based fraud charges and significant penalties despite mitigating factors such as cooperation and remediation. The cybersecurity enforcement landscape going forward may narrow with respect to the kinds of statements that the SEC will investigate, the types of charges the SEC will bring, and the penalties that the SEC may impose against public companies.

Wall Street Goes All In on Great Crypto Comeback Fueled by Trump

For Wall Street, this year’s event also brought a reckoning: the blockchain that created and electronically-stored cryptocurrencies will be key to the shift to trading US stocks 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“There was a previous year where there was a lot of hype around crypto,” said DRW’s Wilson, who also co-founded crypto firm Digital Asset. “But this year there is a recognition that using blockchain is actually going to be an important part of how we move to 24-7 trading.”