[CHAINALYSIS PODCAST EPISODE 48] Crypto in the Crosshairs: Are Digital Assets Securities or Commodities?

Episode 48 of the Public Key podcast is here! In this episode, we talk with Michael Selig (Counsel, Asset Management at Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP), who details the ongoing challenges with cryptocurrency and regulatory oversight in the USA.

You can listen or subscribe now on Spotify, Applegold Audible. Keep reading for a full preview of episode 48.

Public Key Episode 48 preview: The impact of cryptocurrencies being deemed as securities

Crypto is taking by storm, and every authority from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), New York Attorney General (NYAG), and US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is weighing in on their regulatory oversight over Bitcoin, Ethereum, and everything in between.

In this episode, Ian Andrews (Chief Marketing Officer, Chainalysis) sat down with Michael Selig (Counsel, Asset Management at Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP) to help demystify the ever-changing landscape of USA regulations and cryptocurrency.

Mike and Ian delve into the latest developments, enforcement actions, and challenges facing the crypto industry and anticipate the impact of proposed custody rules and securities implications could have on the crypto ecosystem. They even try to hypothesize what regulations on decentralized protocols could look like.

Quote of the episode

“Satoshi Nakamoto may have never envisioned that ordinal NFTs would be on top of Bitcoin and so to rely upon Satoshi Nakamoto to make disclosures under a Form S-1 about ordinals and all the crazy things that have been done on Bitcoin, that would just be nonsense” – Michael Selig (Counsel, Asset Management at Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP)

Minute-by-minute episode breakdown

• (2:35) – Mike’s origin story and first interaction with Bitcoin before going to law school
• (5:35) – Why is the question of whether cryptocurrency is a security or not still unanswered?
• (12:25) – Does the NYAG have a strong case saying that Ether is a security?
• (20:00) – Nothing starts decentralized, and what does that mean for regulatory enforcement
• (26:30) – What would happen if most cryptocurrencies were deemed commodities?
• (30:55) – How recent enforcement actions might shape the way crypto staking is offered in the USA
• (36:25) – How the proposed SEC revisions to the Custody Rule could impact crypto
• (40:05) – Where does DeFi fit into regulatory oversight in the USA

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Speakers on today’s episode

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