Off the Blockchain+, December 1-8, 2025

It was tokenization week, with the SEC holding a panel on the topic, Chair Atkins delivering multiple speeches which hit on tokenization topics like self-custody and trading, and a TradFi mainstay advocating for the SEC to hurry up and wait with layers of forced intermediation instead of pursuing the highest/best use of blockchain technologies. CongressContinue reading “Off the Blockchain+, December 1-8, 2025”

Off the Blockchain+, November 17-24, 2025

It was another week focused on market structure, as the Senate Agriculture committee is working through the brackets in its commodities-focused market structure draft and Senate Republicans are in talks with Senate Democrats on the banking/securities focused aspects of market structure in Senate Banking. With the CFTC-Chair nominee one step closer to taking over thatContinue reading “Off the Blockchain+, November 17-24, 2025”

Off the Blockchain+, November 3-10, 2025

The big story last week was the criminal trial over against two (alleged) MEV exploiters ending in a mistrial, giving another datapoint on where the line is drawn between “code-is-law” and fraud. Additionally, people (including the Digital Chamber) had lots to say to Treasury on how the GENIUS Act should be implemented, and the firstContinue reading “Off the Blockchain+, November 3-10, 2025”

Off the Blockchain+, October 20-27, 2025

After a brief break in coverage as I transitioned to my new role with the Digital Chamber, the weekly legal updates are back! As provided in the disclaimer at the end, any views or opinions provided in these updates are the views of me and me alone, and not the view of the Digital ChamberContinue reading “Off the Blockchain+, October 20-27, 2025”

Career Update: I’m Joining the Digital Chamber to Advocate for Crypto Full Time

It’s been a while since I posted anything besides my weekly crypto legal update. So apologies if you opened your email or this blog looking for legal developments. Those may or may not continue. Still up in the air on that. The tl;dr of this week’s update is that I am leaving Polsinelli to joinContinue reading “Career Update: I’m Joining the Digital Chamber to Advocate for Crypto Full Time”

Off the Blockchain+, September 29-October 6, 2025

I have been posting these weekly crypto legal updates since January of 2023 without missing a week. My master tracking document is now 444 pages and almost 200,000 words. It has been awesome, and I am very thankful for all the subscribers and readers who have reached out to give suggestions to improve the updatesContinue reading “Off the Blockchain+, September 29-October 6, 2025”

Off the Blockchain+, September 8-15, 2025

Most of the focus right now is on the Senate as they work through their market structure legislation process. But at the administrative agencies, things are moving forward whether market structure happens this year or not, with the SEC moving forward with implementing blockchain technology into trading equities, and the CFTC still waiting for aContinue reading “Off the Blockchain+, September 8-15, 2025”

Off the Blockchain+, August 11-18, 2025

With Congress in August recess, it was a slow week as far as Web3 legal developments go. Which was a welcome respite after the flurry of activity in July and what is expected to be an equally fast paced September. There was nothing that warranted Major Story attention, but that gives time to catch upContinue reading “Off the Blockchain+, August 11-18, 2025”

Off the Blockchain+, August 4-11, 2025

After the flurry of activity over the past month, it was a relatively calm week in crypto legal developments. The main event worth tracking was the conclusion of the DOJ v. Roman Storm trial, which ended in one guilty verdict for an unlicensed money transmission charge related to the creation of non-custodial open-source software whichContinue reading “Off the Blockchain+, August 4-11, 2025”

Off the Blockchain+, July 28-August 4, 2025

Ethereum turned 10 years old last week, and the network has had many different upgrades over the years with zero downtime, which is an amazing technical feat. And Ethereum’s birthday week was a BUSY one. Between the Chair of the SEC announcing his intent to bring all American capital markets onchain through “Project Crypto” andContinue reading “Off the Blockchain+, July 28-August 4, 2025”