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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

Judge Analisa Torres’ greatly anticipated Order in the SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple is a split decision.  The Order basically finds that Ripple’s digital token XRP is a security when sold privately to individuals and institutional investors pursuant to purchase agreements, but is not a security when sold on a digital asset exchange where sellers don’t know who’s buying and buyers don’t know who’s selling.[1]  Although the Order should be perceived as at least a partial victory for crypto, it perversely upends a fundamental tenet of the securities laws which is that the laws are designed to protect those who cannot fend for themselves.  Moreover, the finding that digital tokens sold anonymously on digital asset exchanges is not a security also seems to contradict the “fraud on the market” theory of securities liability.Continue Reading Parting the Crypto Sea:  Ripple’s XRP Ruled to be a Security When Sold to Private Investors, But Not When Sold on an Exchange

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…

On November 27, 2018, the United States District Court for the Southern District of California denied the Securities and Exchange Commission’s motion for a preliminary injunction to block an initial coin offering, finding the Commission did not meet its burden of showing the digital token in question was a security. Although this appears to be…

Bloomberg reported on October 16 that over $3 billion dollars have been raised in over 200 initial coin offerings so far this year. It remains to be seen whether the pace of ICOs will slow down in the face of regulatory headwinds such as the outright ICO bans in China and South Korea. Here…