This past week, we received further evidence that U.S. federal regulators will continue to scrutinize potential compliance issues in virtual currency trading and initial coin offerings (“ICOs”) under existing law.
However, the key takeaway is that the U.S. regulators, so far, are doing so under established interpretations of their existing authority. In our view, none of these events should be construed either as establishing a new regulatory framework or as a significant expansion of prior regulatory authority.