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According to crypto platform Kraken, the aggregate market cap for all meme coins is over $70 billion.  Five meme coins would be considered unicorns (market cap over $1 billion) if they were startups.  Dogecoin’s market cap is $35 billion.  Social media influencers, celebrities and high-profile politicians have either launched their own meme coin or endorsed others, including Caitlyn Jenner (JENNER), Iggy Azalea (MOTHER) and Donald Trump (MAGA).  Meme coins are not backed by any real-world assets, not even virtual assets. In fact, many meme coins originate as internet jokes.  

Meme coins lack any inherent utility and function primarily as speculative gambling vehicles.  Given the speculative nature of meme coins, they tend to experience significant market price volatility.  

But are they securities?  The answer is generally no, according to a staff statement released by the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Corporation Finance on February 27, 2025. Continue Reading Crypto Collectibles: Meme Coins Deemed Not Securities by SEC Staff

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FTX

“Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here.” Such was the lament of John Ray, the legendary restructuring executive tasked with the unenviable assignment of serving as the caretaker CEO of bankrupt FTX Trading Ltd.  As the criminal and civil cases by the DOJ, SEC and CFTC against FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried play out in the courts, what does the “complete failure of corporate controls” at FTX teach us about corporate governance, unchecked founder control and the importance of proper oversight?Continue Reading FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried and the Risk of Unchecked Founder Control

Background: Crypto Catch 22

Followers of the SEC’s efforts to regulate digital tokens will recall former SEC Corp Fin Director William Hinman’s speech at the June 14, 2018 Yahoo Finance Conference in which he introduced the now generally accepted proposition that a digital asset could originally be deemed a security while its network is being…

On May 3, 2021, blockchain-based trading platform operator INX Ltd. announced it had completed its initial public offering of digital tokens, raising approximately $85 million in the IPO from over 7,200 institutional and retail investors.  The INX IPO is the first SEC registered offering of digital tokens, and represents another major milestone for blockchain asset…

On December 2, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit against Ripple Labs, Inc. and two of its executives alleging they offered and sold over $1.38 billion of digital asset XRP without registration or exemption in violation of Section 5 of the Securities Act of 1933, seeking disgorgement of ill-gotten gains.  Ripple filed an…