Blockchain Week in Review – November 2020 # 2 | Perkins Coie

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Weekly focus:

  • Jay Clayton resigns as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission
  • Brian Brooks has been appointed for a five-year term as Comptroller of Currency
  • Protocol of origin attacked, with an estimated loss of $ 7 million
  • The SEC issues a no-action letter to IMVU
  • Financial group Mitsubishi UFJ expects to launch the blockchain payments network in 2021
  • The Texas State Securities Board submits cease and desist orders against ten digital asset investment platforms

Jay Clayton will step down as president of the SEC later this year

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton will step down later this year, according to a November 16, 2020 announcement. This departure limits a three-and-a-half-year term, which began in May 2017.

Clayton’s time with the SEC has seen a number of initiatives in the digital assets space, many of which are detailed in Selected SEC Achievements May 2017 – November 2020 and were discussed by President Clayton in his November 19, 2020 speech at ‘Economic Club of New York. These include the creation of the Cyber ​​Unit as part of the SEC division for enforcement, the launch of FinHub and the establishment of the position of Senior Advisor for Digital Assets and Innovation. In his November 19 speech discussing his tenure, President Clayton said: “I am optimistic that developments in financial technology will help facilitate capital formation, providing promising investment opportunities for both institutional and corporate investors. those of Main Street. From a financial regulation perspective, these developments may allow us to better monitor transactions, holdings and obligations (including credit exposures) and other activities and characteristics of our markets, thereby facilitating our regulatory mission, including, most importantly, the investor protection “.

Brian Brooks has been appointed full time as a Comptroller of Currency

On November 17, 2020, the White House announced its intention to appoint Brian Brooks as the Comptroller of the Currency for a five-year term. Brooks stepped in as Acting Comptroller in May 2020 after serving as Coinbase’s Chief Legal Officer since 2018. During Brooks’ tenure as Acting Comptroller, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has provided substantial interpretative guidance to banks on resources digital assets, including Interpretive Letter 1170 and Interpretive Letter 1172, which discuss a bank’s ability to provide custody services for digital assets and hold stablecoin reserves, respectively.

The appointment would be subject to approval by the United States Senate. At the time of this writing, the US Senate Banking Committee has not scheduled a nomination hearing.

Protocol of origin violated

Matthew Liu, founder of stablecoin Origin, announced on Twitter that the source dollar was hacked on November 16, 2020 and advised all users to stop buying or minting additional tokens. A detailed medium post illustrated the eight steps used in a sophisticated protocol attack. The overall loss is estimated at around $ 7 million, including over $ 6 million from Origin users and an additional $ 1 million from Origin and its founders.

Origin launched in September as “The first Stablecoin that earns a return in your portfolio”.

The SEC sends a letter of non-action to IMVU, Inc., for the offer of VCOIN

In a no-action letter dated November 19, 2020, the SEC Division of Corporation Finance stated that the offer and sale of VCOINs did not require registration under Section 5 of the Securities Act, or Section 12 (g) of the ‘Exchange Act, and that it would not recommend enforcement action for the offer and sale of VCOIN by IMVU, Inc. The SEC brief letter noted a number of relevant considerations, including the usefulness of VCOIN, the ability to maintain a fixed price, marketing and promotional restrictions and KYC / AML Controls. The SEC also pointed out that VCOIN will be transferable both on and off the IMVU platform. This was the response to a November 17, 2020 letter on behalf of IMVU, Inc. from its consultant, Perkins Coie.

Financial group Mitsubishi UFJ expects to launch the blockchain payments network in 2021

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group announced the 2021 launch of its Global Open Network (Go-Net) payment system, developed as part of a joint venture with US-based Akamai Technologies. The development of Go-Net was first announced in early 2019 and described by Akamai as “a new blockchain-based online payment system that can better meet the payment processing needs of customers and partners.”

One of the first planned uses is processing credit card transactions on beverage vending machines in Japan. Go-Net reports that it can process 100,000 transactions per second and can scale up to over 10 million small payments per second. This system relies on 280,000 servers reported in over 100 countries to support the blockchain payment network.

The Texas State Securities Board submits cease and desist orders for 10 digital asset investment platforms

On November 19, 2020, the Texas State Securities Commissioner announced law enforcement actions against 10 online digital asset investment platforms. The first of three cease and desist orders states that the 10 platforms have been involved in fraud and deception related to their online digital asset business, as well as registration, consumer disclosure and license violations.

Commissioner Travis J. Iles reportedly said, “Investors cannot afford to take everything at face value when transacting on the Internet. They need to investigate thoroughly before investing, because anyone on the Internet can forge a business license, post fake testimonials, or falsely claim to be regulated by an offshore agency. “

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