Anderson Kill

Unchained/Jul 15, 2023/48m

The Chopping Block: Should XRP Holders Really Be Rejoicing? - Ep. 519

Welcome to “The Chopping Block” – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest news. This week, crypto lawyer Stephen Palley joins an emergency live show to unpack Thursday’s judgment in the Ripple case. Crypto markets are pumping after a judge handed Ripple Labs a partial victory in its fight against the SEC. But is the jubilation warranted? “I can understand why people are happy,” said Palley, a partner at Brown Rudnick LLP. “I’m just a little more cautious on what happens next.” Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights: why Judge Analisa Torres ruled that retail sales of XRP do not violate U.S. securities laws how the court denied summary judgment on some issues relating to Ripple’s Brad Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen why “Footnote 16” of the ruling was so “surprising,” according to Stephen whether the SEC will appeal the case and how that process could unfold why Coinbase, Kraken and other exchanges re-listed XRP and whether that’s a safe step whether Coinbase will cite the Ripple judgment in its lawsuit against the SEC how this ruling does not represent a binding precedent why, even though this is a win for Ripple, it shouldn’t be used for investment strategy why Haseeb thinks the SEC should “fire their press department” whether the SEC’s case is “stronger than people on Twitter might like to believe” how, if proven, the allegations against Celsius founder Alex Mashinsky are “straight-up fraud” why Stephen says that a lot of the enforcement activity focused on DeFi was an “absolute misuse of resources” Hosts Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly Robert Leshner, founder of Compound Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures Guest: Stephen Palley, litigation partner at Brown Rudnick Disclosures Links Previous coverage of Unchained on the Ripple case: New Order in SEC vs. Ripple Over XRP Is a Win for Crypto: What Happens Now? The SEC's Lawsuit Against Ripple and 2 Execs: What You Need to Know Ripple's XRP: Why Its Chances of Success Are Low Unchained: SEC vs Ripple: Judge Rules XRP Sold on Exchanges Is Not a Security Former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky Arrested in New York - Unchained Crypto CoinDesk: Ripple, Crypto Industry Score Partial Win in SEC Court Fight Over XRP Ripple Labs Ruling Throws U.S. Crypto-Token Regulation into Disarray The Washington Post: Ripple ruling threatens SEC’s crypto regulation push Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Partner

Unchained/Oct 1, 2021/36m

Unconfirmed: People Expected a Big SEC Enforcement Action This Week. What Happened? Days - Ep.277

Stephen Palley, partner at Anderson Kill, discusses a few hot-button crypto regulatory issues like lending products, whether DeFi protocols fall under the SEC’s purview, and more. Show highlights: why Stephen thinks the SEC and CFTC did not announce more extensive crypto enforcement news this week what areas the SEC Chair Gary Gensler and the SEC as a whole are focused on regulating what Stephen has heard about whether stablecoins that are not fully-backed are securities why Coinbase decided to drop its Lend product why Stephen is skeptical that decentralized protocols should be regulated under existing securities laws how securities law is contrary to consumer protection in light of DeFi protocols and airdrops why DeFi AMMs should be regulated differently than centralized market books whether companies running a front-end for a DeFi protocol should be considered an exchange why crypto devs are “going Satoshi” because of US securities laws Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/unconfirmedcardearnfeb2021 Nodle: https://bit.ly/3AXGydJ Sorare: https://sorare.com Episode Links Stephen Palley Twitter: https://twitter.com/stephendpalley Unchained podcast appearance speaking about Ripple: https://unchainedpodcast.com/the-secs-lawsuit-against-ripple-and-2-execs-what-you-need-to-know/ Topics Covered Lending Products Coinbase blogs regarding Lend https://blog.coinbase.com/the-sec-has-told-us-it-wants-to-sue-us-over-lend-we-have-no-idea-why-a3a1b6507009 https://blog.coinbase.com/sign-up-to-earn-4-apy-on-usd-coin-with-coinbase-cdad79e5f5eb Lend overview: https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/a-september-to-remember-coinbase-avoids-7608131/ Brian Armstrong angry tweet storm https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong/status/1435439291715358721 BlockFi and Celsius overview https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2021/09/17/3-states-alabama-securities-commission-also-claims-celsius-violated-securities-laws/ SEC + Gary Gensler How SEC Chair Gary Gensler’s Views on Crypto Have Changed Since His MIT Days https://unchainedpodcast.com/how-sec-chair-gary-genslers-views-on-crypto-have-changed-since-his-mit-days/ SEC Chair Gary Gensler Washington Post Q&A https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2021/09/21/transcript-path-forward-cryptocurrency-with-gary-gensler/ Gary Gensler + Elizabeth Warren letters https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/warren-releases-response-from-sec-chair-gensler-affirming-need-to-regulate-cryptocurrency-exchanges-and-protect-investors-and-our-financial-system Other Uniswap delisting certain tokens through its front end https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/112399/uniswap-labs-culls-synthetic-stock-and-derivatives-citing-evolving-regulatory-landscape Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Partner

Unchained/Jan 19, 2021/1h 10m

The SEC's Lawsuit Against Ripple and 2 Execs: What You Need to Know - Ep.208

Stephen Palley, partner at Anderson Kill. and Gabriel Shapiro, partner at BSV Law, discuss the SEC's lawsuit against Ripple and two executives, Chris Larsen and Bard Garlinghouse. In this episode, they explain: what was so "egregious" that the SEC went after two executives, Chris Larsen and Brad Garlinghouse, were charged why their sales showed an information asymmetry, and why that matters why the complaint comes close to being a fraud case, but why the SEC didn't charge them with fraud why the idea that XRP is a currency and therefore cannot be a security will likely not fly why it's unlikely the case will go to the Supreme Court the SEC's case for why XRP is a security, and Ripple's role in it how even on a technical level, the XRP network is centralized how strong the SEC's case is against Larsen and Garlinghouse Stephen's and Gabriel's predictions on how the lawsuit will play out how this will likely impact XRP investors whether or not Ripple could become an SEC-reporting company and XRP a security what happened with Ripple's lead investor in its most recent fundraising round whether or not the SEC might go after exchanges or other players who made money off XRP or collaborated with Ripple around XRP trading what this means for Coinbase, in particular, because it's going public later this year what Ripple's defense, in its summarized Wells submission, was how this case compares to some of the other big SEC/crypto securities cases, Kik/Kin and Telegram whether there might ever be a digital token that is determined to be a security for specific transactions but not others what the wider implications of the case are for the rest of the crypto industry Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: http://crypto.com 1inch: https://1inch.exchange Episode links: Stephen Palley: https://twitter.com/stephendpalley Gabriel Shapiro: https://twitter.com/lex_node SEC lawsuit against Ripple: https://www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/2020/comp-pr2020-338.pdf SEC lawsuit against Ripple being close to a fraud case: https://twitter.com/stephendpalley/status/1341523294344896515?s=20 Former SEC commissioner Joe Grundefest on the case: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/89164/former-sec-commissioner-says-ripple-lawsuit-will-cause-multi-billion-dollar-losses-to-innocent-third-parties Other lawsuit against Ripple: https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.334410/gov.uscourts.cand.334410.115.0.pdf Technical assessment of Ripple network: https://cryptobern.github.io/noconsensusripple/ Tetragon’s case against Ripple: https://twitter.com/stephendpalley/status/1346531087971999749?s=20 What the case means for exchanges: https://www.coindesk.com/coinbase-delist-xrp-exchanges-dilemma Coinbase suspends trading in XRP: https://blog.coinbase.com/coinbase-will-suspend-trading-in-xrp-on-january-19-2e09652dbf57 https://www.coindesk.com/coinbase-suspends-xrp-trading Lawsuit against Coinbase: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-30/coinbase-sued-over-xrp-commissions-after-sec-pursues-ripple?sref=m9L277rN https://twitter.com/stephendpalley/status/1344352455895691269?s=20 People in the industry thinking for a while that XRP is a security: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/genesis/57366/xrp-is-probably-a-security-dont-at-me Mary Jo White: https://www.coindesk.com/former-sec-chair-represents-ripple-xrp-lawsuit Ripple’s Wells submission: https://ripple.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Ripple-Wells-Submission-Summary.pdf Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Partner

General Counsel

Delphi Labs BLBSV Law

The Scoop/Oct 5, 2020/36m

Stephen Palley gives an in depth look at the BitMEX charges — and what it could mean for DeFi regulation

Last Thursday, BitMEX found itself embroiled in both a civil and criminal case with the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ), respectively. BitMEX was hit by twin lawsuits. The CFTC accused the derivative exchange and its operators, including CEO Arthur Hayes and co-founders Ben Delo and Samuel Reed, of running an unregistered trading platform and violating anti-money laundering and know-your-customer regulations. The DOJ filed a criminal indictment against Hayes, Delo, Reed and head of business development Greg Dwyer for allegedly violating the Bank Secrecy Act. Reed himself was arrested. Responding to the breaking news developments, Stephen Palley, partner at Anderson Kill, featured on this week's episode of The Scoop to break down the nuances of the two cases. He touched on: The process for litigating Bank Secrecy Act violations, and why it's likely the BitMEX operators are likely on the hook for possible prison time What this case means for the growing decentralized finance space Key facts in each filing that will be impactful going forward Why it's surprising that the BitMeX domain has not been seized by law enforcement

Partner

The Scoop/May 21, 2019/53m

A Conversation with Stephen Palley, Partner at Anderson Kill

In this episode of The Scoop, Frank Chaparro and Ryan Todd interview Stephen Palley, Partner at corporate law firm Anderson Kill. Over the course of a forty-five minute long conversation, Stephen discusses the most current lawsuits including recent developments at Bitfinex and Tether. Stephen also shares his thoughts on projects like Maker and how he sees regulation developing. For the transcript and additional reading materials: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/2019/05/21/a-conversation-with-stephen-palley

Partner

Unchained/Mar 13, 2018/1h 6m

The Skeptics' Episode: Preston Byrne and Angela Walch on What the Industry and Regulators Get Wrong in Crypto

Preston Byrne, an independent consultant and English lawyer, and Angela Walch, an associate professor at St. Mary’s University School of Law who focuses on blockchain technology, both explain their criticisms of the crypto space, give grades to regulators on their job so far, and how they think major players in the space can improve. They discuss what systemic risks they believe crypto could pose to the wider financial system, how the current activity in the space is accruing "legal debt," and what it's like being a critic in a land of believers. Preston Byrne: https://prestonbyrne.com/ Angela Walch: https://law.stmarytx.edu/academics/faculty/angela-walch/ Sponsored by Preciate: https://preciate.org/ for https://preciate.org/recognize/ and StartEngine: http://startengine.com/ for https://www.startengine.com/pages/summit Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Preston Byrne

Co-founder and Former COO

Monax

St. Mary's University School of Law

Angela Walch

Associate Professor

Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy/Jan 16, 2018/1h 14m

Preston Byrne - Crypto-pocalypse - [Invest Like the Best, EP.72]

My guest this week is Preston Byrne. Preston is vocal critic of crazy prices and projects in the world cryptocurrencies. His background is in the legal world and also as a founder and former COO of Monax, which made the first open-source permissioned blockchain client. As Preston says, he is a “blockchain without bitcoin” guy, who believes that this crypto mania will end in some sort of apocalypse for token holders and ICO issuers . We tackle several issues, from his broad skepticism of crypto assets, to the potential regulatory reaction from major governments, to types of coins like stable coins, which Preston views as analogous to perpetual motion machines. Please enjoy our conversation and for any crypto investors out there, let me know if this conversation affects your opinion of the investing prospects for cryptocurrencies. Hash Power is presented by Fidelity Investments For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag Links Referenced Bitcoin white paper The Bear Case for Crypto Hash Power series Zero Hedge Preston tweet on Reverse network effect Show Notes 2:12 - (First Question) –Ponzi scheme vs pyramid scheme vs Nakimoto scheme 5:29 – Why there are regulatory challenges to cryptocurrency 5:33 – The Bear Case for Crypto 9:59 – Who are the most influential people supporting this and how are they swaying the regulatory minefield on this issue 10:28 – Hash Power series 13:23 – Looking into the idea of a digital asset and the difference between blockchain and the token itself 16:09 – What about the idea that cryptocurrency’s only feature is that it’s censorship resistant 18:39 – Why cryptocurrencies become less usable the more successful they are 18:59 – Zero Hedge 21:04 – Why can’t we rely on offchain solutions to solve the scaling issue 22:29 – The idea of bubbles and what happens next in this one 25:41 – What are the incentives to build technology to support cryptocurrencies 29:23 – Explaining Ripple 31:21 – What would precipitate a massive reversal in the inflated valuations of cryptocurrencies 34:52 – Understanding reverse network effects 34:36 – Preston tweet on Reverse network effect 37:45 – The principles behind Stablecoin 42:20 – What has been the greatest lesson that Preston has learned about blockchain he wish he knew when he first got started 44:05 – How embedded will blockchain be by 2024/2025 45:12 – ICO’s, why Preston is not a fan and if there are any positives to them 50:20 – What are the conditions under which these things will be viewed legally. 54:00 – Preston’s history owning cryptocurrencies 55:35 – What has Preston most excited in the space 59:02 – Utility settlement coin 1:00:36 – Why the fascination with marmots 1:02:10 – What to reference before getting started with cryptocurrencies 1:04:03 – Understanding supply chains in block chain 1:07:14 – Some smart people on block chain to follow 1:08:24 – Kindest thing anyone has done for Preston Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub Follow Patrick on twitter at @patrick_oshag

Preston Byrne

Co-founder and Former COO

Monax