Michael Findlay

Lawyer, but not yours; Views are my own

[DeFi Education Fund @fund_defi]

1/ Today, OFAC officially announced the delisting of Tornado Cash from its Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) and Blocked Persons List following years of litigation on the issue.

The DEF team published a deep dive on the history, important nuances of the delisting, and potential implications 👇

https://t.co/yKmpMrLvjs

[DeFi Education Fund @fund_defi]

2/ The Treasury Dept delisted the Tornado Cash front-end website, as well as smart contracts making up the protocol — but did not delist developer @semenov_roman_  

While the delisting is a positive development for the DeFi industry, more hard work remains to be done to protect software developers’ rights to build.

[Neeraj K. Agrawal @NeerajKA]

We won

[Rep. Ritchie Torres @RepRitchie]

Excited to announce that today, @GOPMajorityWhip and I are launching the Congressional Crypto Caucus.

We hope to build a unified, bipartisan coalition to cement America’s leadership in the future of digital assets and blockchain innovation.

[Hester Peirce @HesterPeirce]

The fact that you might lose money on something does not make it a security. Be careful out there: https://t.co/NmJfHGELRN

[U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission @SECGov]

Yesterday, we announced that the Commission has filed a joint stipulation with Coinbase Inc. and Coinbase Global Inc. to dismiss the ongoing civil enforcement action against the two entities. https://t.co/6rvWAwR64H

[Jake Chervinsky @jchervinsky]

Crypto companies are walking in the front door at the SEC to have constructive conversations about what good policy should look like.

For the first time ever. Literally.

We've barely begun to unlock crypto's potential in the USA. The next couple years are going to be massive.

[U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission @SECGov]

Acting Chairman Mark T. Uyeda launched a crypto task force dedicated to developing a comprehensive and clear regulatory framework for crypto assets. Commissioner Hester Peirce will lead the task force. For more: https://t.co/cImOILB7HG

[Paul Grewal @iampaulgrewal]

We just won our petition for a writ of mandamus at the Third Circuit. Rebuking @SECGov for its order denying our rulemaking petition, the Court held that the "SEC’s order was conclusory and insufficiently reasoned, and thus arbitrary and capricious, we grant Coinbase’s petition in part and remand to the SEC for a more complete explanation." We appreciate the Court's careful consideration. 1/3

[Senator Cynthia Lummis @SenLummis]

Recent allegations of attacks against digital asset companies by staff at the FDIC, if true, are bone-chilling. Operation Chokepoint 2.0 is real and I will work with Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott to get to the bottom of these serious allegations.

[Jeremy Hogan @attorneyjeremy1]

Big news in the legal crypto space. The judge in the SEC v. Coinbase case has stayed the lawsuit until the appellate court rules on whether an "investment contract" requires an actual contract. This is also the main point of contention in the Ripple appeal.

The granting of an interlocutory appeal is rare and indicates that the trial level judge thinks there is "something there."

[Neeraj K. Agrawal @NeerajKA]

New Congressional report says FBI abuses SAR process to circumvent its own legal limits for spying on Americans.

Banks are required to report transactions they think are suspicious. If the FBI gives banks a list of suspicious people they get free SARs w/out process

[Chris Lane @D_CentralBanker]

1/ Operation Choke Point 2.0 has entered the mainstream discussion and as the former CTO of Silvergate, I want to provide my personal view

First, the Silvergate SEN network was a core piece of infrastructure in the cryptocurrency economy

As someone who was there when it launched, I can't express how watching its influence disappear overnight impacted my family and myself

My father, Alan Lane was the CEO of Silvergate. It was sometime in early 2023 that I realized Silvergate, the business I poured my life into for 13 years was going to die

[Anessa Allen Santos @anessasantoslaw]

I’ve spoken with dozens of banks who refused to service crypto companies, many of whom put it in writing in an email to me.

[Eleanor Terrett @EleanorTerrett]

🚨NEW: “It is perplexing that the Harris-Walz policy team opted not to meet with diverse leaders in crypto, but instead is rolling out a policy that narrowly frames crypto around Black men only and proposes a regulatory framework limiting Black men to consumers instead of producers," @cmesi said in a statement to @TheBlock__.

What are your thoughts on @KamalaHarris’s latest #crypto policy plans?

[Michael Findlay @cryptocastle11]

First notice of appearance filed as a licensed Florida attorney today. #solidbirthday

[Alexander Grieve @AlexanderGrieve]

Excellent stuff from @jchervinsky and @amandatums. A nice aggregation of Gensler SEC hypocrisy 🔥

[David Hoffman @TrustlessState]

"TradFi relies on intermediaries that serve as financial gatekeepers

Big banks can, and do, deny access to finance for discriminatory, or no reasons!

But DeFi is open access. Anyone with internet has access to DeFi

that is the epitome of financial inclusion"

lfg @amandatums!

[Kristin Smith @KristinSmith]

Today’s roundtable led by @RepRoKhanna w crypto leaders & White House reps was a thoughtful step forward for crypto in DC.

Key points I shared:

-The crypto voter is real
-The crypto advocate is active
-The crypto industry is mature

It's working. Let’s keep up the momentum.

[Bill Hughes @BillHughesDC]

A DEPARTURE FROM THE HOWEY FRAMEWORK

       “Insisting that an asset that was the subject of an alleged investment contract is itself a ‘security’ as it moves forward in commerce and is bought and sold by private individuals on any number of exchanges, and is used in any number of ways over an indefinite period of time, marks a departure from the Howey framework that leaves the Court, the industry, and future buyers and sellers with no clear differentiating principle between tokens in the marketplace that are securities and tokens that aren’t. It is not a principle the Court feels comfortable endorsing or applying based on the allegations in the complaint, particularly since the only term among the approximately twenty options included in the statutory definition of “security” that is being relied upon in this case is ‘investment contract.’”

- Judge Jackson re secondary sales claim in the strongest complaint the SEC will ever bring against a major crypto firm.