July 5, 2024 and July 13, 2024 will mark the two-year anniversary of Voyager’s and Celsius’s bankruptcy filings, respectively. Under the Bankruptcy Code, actions to clawback pre-bankruptcy transfers, such as 90-day preferential transfers, must be commenced within two years after bankruptcy is filed. Given the impending deadline in both cases, we can expect a wave of clawback actions to be filed...
The FTX bankruptcy proceeding has become tangled with the criminal trial of Sam Bankman-Fried, following a path forged by some of the largest bankruptcies and frauds of the past such as Enron, Adelphia, and Madoff. Joseph Cioffi, Insolvency + Finance partner, was quoted in the Law360 article, “Long Before FTX, Criminal Cases Have Complicated CH. 11” presenting his takeaways from these watershed...
In 2022, the Uniform Law Commission adopted new amendments to the model Uniform Commercial Code ("UCC") to address cryptocurrency transactions, including secured lending involving digital assets. These amendments have been enacted by at least five states (Washington, New Mexico, Colorado, Indiana and North Dakota) and introduced in another 21 states (including California and Texas, but not New...
Going forward, it looks like crypto companies that make it in New York will be able to make it anywhere. All over, at the state and federal level and internationally, turmoil in the crypto industry is leading to increased scrutiny. In New York, home of the comprehensive (some would say onerous) BitLicense, cryptocurrency mining has been partially banned and the New York State Department of...
When the history books are written, it may be said that the biggest event to shake the crypto world was not the crypto bankruptcies of 2022, but rather, the clawback of billions of dollars in crypto value in those bankruptcies. Since summer 2022, five major crypto companies have filed bankruptcy: a hedge fund (Three Arrows Capital), two lenders (Celsius and BlockFi), a broker (Voyager), and an...
As we learn more about FTX’s operations, speculation is slowly giving way to certainty. It’s clear FTX’s collapse will have a deep impact on the future of regulations, its bankruptcy will help create the blueprint for clawbacks in the crypto space, and potential tensions between the trustee and foreign liquidators could forge new jurisdictional law.
The course of regulatory reform in the U.S. related to digital assets is likely about to change as a result of the allegations against Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX affiliated entities in bankruptcy. Prior to FTX’s bankruptcy, and with Bankman’s support, the industry was gaining traction in promoting its own views regarding needed safeguards, including oversight and enforcement by the Commodity...
