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<a href="#crypto">U.S. Crypto Companies Continue New Product Initiatives</a>

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<a href="#taskforce">New SEC Chair Launches Crypto Task Force, Industry Actors Propose Actions</a>

<a href="#sec">SEC Announces Crypto Enforcement Actions</a>

<a href="#doj">DOJ Enforcement Action Targets Foreign-Based Crypto Market Maker</a>

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U.S. Crypto Companies Continue New Product Initiatives

By <a href="https://www.bakerlaw.com/RobertAMusiala">Robert A. Musiala Jr.</a>

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One of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges recently announced that it has launched trading for “institutional and advanced traders” in the U.S. According to a blog post, the exchange’s U.S. “institutional-grade offering” complements its retail services, which were previously available to U.S. users.

In another recent development, Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, announced that it has acquired Hashnote, the issuer of USYC, a “tokenized treasury and money market fund.” According to a blog post, “Circle intends to fully integrate USYC with USDC, offering seamless access between TMMF collateral and USDC.” The blog post states that the integration “will enable USYC to emerge as a preferred form of yield-bearing collateral on crypto exchanges, and also with custodians and prime brokers.”

In a final notable item, asset tokenization platform Securitize recently announced new features for BUIDL, a major tokenized Treasury fund. According to a blog post, the first feature, “daily dividends,” will allow holders of BUIDL to receive dividends directly in their wallets daily Monday-Friday. The second feature, “intra-day redemptions,” will reportedly allow BUIDL investors to “redeem their holdings at multiple intervals throughout the day, aligning with dynamic market conditions and operational demands.”

For more information, please refer to the following links:

<a href="https://crypto.com/en/company-news/crypto-com-exchange-set-for-u-s-launch" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Crypto.com Exchange Set for U.S. Launch</a>

<a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-friendly-etoro-files-ipo-united-states" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Crypto-friendly trading platform eToro files for US IPO</a>

<a href="https://www.circle.com/pressroom/circle-announces-acquisition-of-hashnote-and-usyc-tokenized-money-market-fund-alongside-strategic-partnership-with-global-trading-firm-drw" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Circle Announces Acquisition of Hashnote and USYC Tokenized Money Market Fund Alongside Strategic Partnership with Global Trading Firm DRW</a>

<a href="https://securitize.io/learn/blog/securitize-unveils-added-features-for-the-blackRock-usd-institutional-digital-liquidity-fund" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Securitize Unveils Added Features for the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund</a>

New SEC Chair Launches Crypto Task Force, Industry Actors Propose Actions

By <a href="https://www.bakerlaw.com/professionals/john-e-robertson/">John Robertson</a>

In a recent press release, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that acting Chairman Mark T. Uyeda has launched a new “crypto task force.” The task force, led by Commissioner Hester Peirce, will focus on developing a new regulatory framework for crypto assets. The release indicates the new framework will shift the SEC away from regulating crypto through enforcement actions and toward regulation through clear regulatory lines, realistic paths to registration and sensible disclosure frameworks.

Partly in response to the new SEC task force, a major digital assets venture capital (VC) fund published an article proposing six specific changes the SEC could make to “provide immediate benefit to the market.” The recommended changes are (1) provide interpretive guidance on “airdrops” and other incentive-based rewards, (2) modify crowdfunding rules for exempt offerings, (3) enable broker-dealers to operate in crypto assets and securities, (4) provide guidance on custody and settlement, (5) reform exchange-traded product standards, and (6) implement a 15c2-11 certification for alternative trading system listings. According to the VC fund, these changes would “reduce ambiguity and support financial innovation” in the digital assets space.

Finally, a major U.S. cryptocurrency exchange recently released a paper outlining its vision for a global financial system focused on tokenization. The paper discusses the advantages of tokenization over the traditional financial system and recommends policies and regulations that can be enacted to foster tokenization. The paper’s regulatory recommendations focus on the identified advantages of tokenization and seek to “ensure the neutrality and interoperability of permissionless networks.” The paper concludes by reemphasizing the exchange’s vision for an updated financial system with a user-centric model built on open and permissionless networks.

<a href="https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2025-30" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">SEC Crypto 2.0: Acting Chairman Uyeda Announces Formation of New Crypto Task Force</a>

<a href="https://a16zcrypto.com/posts/article/sec-digital-age/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">A new (digital) age at the SEC</a>

<a href="https://assets.ctfassets.net/o10es7wu5gm1/3DPt8YOiYtdVfqUoeuAJdS/33b4c368f7bc6b4ff7173df36c3d00da/Davos_Whitepaper_A4.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Coinbase Institute: Why the Future of Finance Calls for a Permissionless Architecture</a>

SEC Announces Crypto Enforcement Actions

By <a href="https://www.bakerlaw.com/RobertAMusiala">Robert A. Musiala Jr.</a><a href="https://www.bakerlaw.com/VeronicaReynolds"></a>

On January 16 and 17, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published three press releases announcing crypto enforcement actions. The first press release announced that the SEC has charged Nova Labs Inc. “with allegedly conducting unregistered offerings of crypto assets as securities and defrauding investors.” According to the press release, among other things the SEC’s complaint alleges that “from April 2019 to the present, Nova Labs made unregistered offers and sales of securities when it offered and sold electronic devices called ‘Hotspots’ that mined Nova Labs’ crypto assets and ‘Discovery Mapping,’ a program that allows users to exchange their private data for Nova Labs’ crypto assets.”

The second SEC press release announced that “Digital Currency Group Inc. (DCG) and Soichoro ‘Michael’ Moro, the former CEO of DCG’s now-defunct subsidiary, Genesis Global Capital LLC, will pay a combined $38.5 million in civil penalties to settle charges for misleading investors about Genesis’ financial condition.” According to the press release, DCG and Moro “downplayed the impact of [an] approximately $1 billion loss and exaggerated what DCG did to help Genesis in the aftermath.” The press release noted that “in the days following the default, Moro made false or misleading statements on Twitter, misleadingly characterizing Genesis’s balance sheet as strong and falsely stating that Genesis had shed the risk related to the default.” The press release also noted that “DCG executives retweeted certain of these statements.”

The third SEC press release announced that the SEC “charged New York blockchain engineer Eric Zhu with perpetrating a fraudulent scheme to defraud investors in the ‘Game Coin’ token (“GME”), a crypto asset that was offered and sold as a security by Game Coin LLC and its founders.” According to the press release, the SEC alleges Zhu engaged in a “rug pull” in which he “misappropriated crypto assets worth approximately $553,000 and caused a decline in the price of GME.”

<a href="https://www.sec.gov/enforcement-litigation/litigation-releases/lr-26229">SEC Charges Nova Labs, Inc. with Fraud and Registration Violations</a>

<a href="https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2025-22" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">SEC Charges Digital Currency Group and Soichiro “Michael” Moro, Former CEO of Genesis Global Capital, for Misleading Investors about Genesis’s Financial Condition</a>

<a href="https://www.sec.gov/enforcement-litigation/litigation-releases/lr-26223" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">SEC Charges New York Blockchain Engineer with Perpetrating “Rug Pull” Fraud</a>

DOJ Enforcement Action Targets Foreign-Based Crypto Market Maker

By <a href="https://www.bakerlaw.com/RobertAMusiala">Robert A. Musiala Jr.</a>

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently published a press release announcing that “CLS Global FZC LLC, a financial services firm known in the cryptocurrency industry as a ‘market maker,’ has agreed to resolve criminal charges relating to its fraudulent manipulation of cryptocurrency trading volume.” According to the DOJ press release, “CLS Global has admitted that it agreed to provide market making services for the NexFundAI token that included ‘wash trading’ to fraudulently attract investors to purchase the token.” The press release notes that “CLS Global was a company registered in the United Arab Emirates that employed over 50 individuals, all located outside the United States, but offered services related to cryptocurrencies available to investors inside the United States.”

For more information, please refer to the following link:

<a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/pr/cryptocurrency-financial-services-firm-agrees-plead-guilty-charges-related" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cryptocurrency Financial Services Firm Agrees to Plead Guilty to Charges Related to Cryptocurrency “Wash Trading”</a>

Weekly Blockchain Blog – January 27, 2025