On April 23, 2026, the Department of Justice unsealed an indictment against Gannon Ken Van Dyke, an active-duty U.S. Army Master Sergeant stationed at Fort Bragg, charging him with using classified information about a U.S. military operation to generate roughly $410,000 in profits by trading binary-event contracts on Polymarket. The indictment, filed in the Southern…
Earlier this month, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission issued a joint interpretive release addressing the application of the federal securities laws to crypto assets. The release is the most comprehensive federal guidance the digital asset industry has received to date. While the interpretation is not binding law and remains…
The 2025 tax year marks a turning point for crypto holders in the United States. For the first time, centralized exchanges are filing new Form 1099-DA reports directly with the IRS, and a landmark legal memo from Cahill Gordon & Reindel is challenging the IRS’s longstanding position on how staking rewards should be taxed. Whether…
This is the most structurally significant shift since the SEC’s 2019 framework, and most people are still analyzing it as if nothing changed. The guidance reinforces a critical distinction: the legal analysis focuses on the circumstances of the offer and sale, not the digital asset in isolation. While regulators increasingly differentiate between types of crypto…
The criminal prosecution of Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm has become one of the most consequential cases in the history of cryptocurrency regulation. At stake is a question that goes far beyond one developer: Can writing and deploying open-source privacy software expose its creator to criminal liability for how others use it? After a four-week…
This article explains exactly how modern Solana drain scams work, why even sophisticated users fall for them, and why “smart contracts” aren’t always the villain people think they are. The Myth of the Stupid Victim There’s an unspoken belief in crypto: people who get scammed must have been careless. That belief is wrong and dangerous. Recently,…
With prediction market platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi recording over $60 billion in trading volume in 2025, a 400% increase year over year, federal regulators are no longer watching from the sidelines. The CFTC has signalled imminent rulemaking. The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York has said his office expects enforcement actions….
Launching a crypto project means navigating a complex legal landscape where the wrong terminology, or worse, ignoring it entirely, can mean the difference between compliance and costly enforcement action. This glossary defines the essential legal concepts every crypto entrepreneur should understand when building in the blockchain space. Securities Law Anti-Money Laundering & Compliance KYC can…
Most founders don’t lose sleep over “regulators.” They lose sleep over getting and keeping critical partners: banks, payment processors, institutional customers, and marketplaces. The businesses that move fastest are those that can confidently and consistently answer basic compliance questions. That’s where AML comes in to show operational readiness. If you touch fiat rails, custody customer…
For years, digital asset developers and cryptocurrency businesses have operated in regulatory limbo. A protocol developer could face securities registration requirements. A wallet creator could be prosecuted for money transmission, and a stablecoin platform offering rewards could be accused of operating an unlicensed bank. The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (CLARITY Act), currently advancing through…