Policy at @DigitalChamber. Tech, Data Privacy, and IP attorney with an NFT obsession. Views are my own/not legal advice. DYOR, NFA, LOL, TTYL.
St. Louis
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The LBRY case was one of the worst examples of SEC overreach in crypto. I have always hated that case/ruling. So did @HesterPeirce, who dissented and quoted me in that dissent.
Love to see the SEC starting to correct those wrongs with todays FAQ! sec.gov/newsroom/speeches-st…
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While just a staff statement/not binding, the SEC's FAQ released today is one of the most significant they have done to-date related to application of securities law (or lack thereof) to most digital assets.
Two things in particular:
1. Promote your network’s utility? Not an IC promise! Promote potential utility? Not an IC promise, so long as you aren’t promoting profit. Keep building and improving a functional network? Not “essential managerial efforts.”
Under this statement, the SEC is all but admitting that the LBRY case and many others should have never been brought and were wrongly decided by the lower courts who heard them.
2. The SEC now says announcing a buyback for a functional network does NOT constitute essential managerial efforts.
Compare that to the prior SEC, where statements about token value, supply, and issuer incentives were central to enforcement theories.
LOVE TO SEE IT! Will be working to turn these statements into binding rulemaking, but this is insanely bullish for the digital asset community and cause for celebration.
FAQs here: sec.gov/about/divisions-offi…
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Birdnals retweeted
I sent @0xQuit $8.
Immense respect for stepping up when it mattered and taking immediate action to save as many people as he could.
Inspired by @jackbutcher’s Credit NFT & the $8 X payment meta.
Because some actions deserve a little Credit. 🫡
I sent @0xQuit $8.
Immense respect for stepping up when it mattered and taking immediate action to save as many people as he could.
Inspired by @jackbutcher’s Credit NFT & the $8 X payment meta.
Because some actions deserve a little Credit. 🫡
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Birdnals retweeted
The U.S. will lead in digital assets.
Momentum hasn't slowed since Clarity. I'm excited for our members to be at the table with regulators and help define this industry for the next generation.
Grateful @DigitalChamber gets to work alongside them to make it happen. 🇺🇸
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🐐🐐🐐
I wish times like these where Good Samaritans step in to help strangers got as much attention as the hack/exploits they are often stepping in to prevent did.
Crypto undeniably has bad actors, but we punch above our weight class in selfless actors as well.
At 9AM EST today somebody abused a bug in Payment Processor V2 to steal 10 Meebits, 50 Otherdeeds, 10 WoW, and 235 Desperate Apewives.
It wasn't until over 12 hours later that somebody reported it to me, and upon digging in I realized that a great many NFTs were subject to the same exploit.
I got in touch with the team over at LimitBreak and they quickly paused Payment Processor V3, which was subject to the same exploit. Unfortunately, V2 was not pausable, so the only path towards protecting affected assets was to run a whitehat operation.
Similarly, V3 on ApeChain is temporarily in a state where it cannot be paused, so ApeChain assets approved to V3 needed to be saved as well.
All in all, we rescued 23,155 NFTs worth north of $5.7M USD.
We later discovered that a similar exploit could be used in reverse to steal WETH. 660 WETH was at risk, which we unfortunately were not fast enough to recover. Apologies to those affected.
Shout out to @Boomskite for flagging the initial exploit tx to me, and @coffeedev @0xjustadev and @whiteoakkong for acting quickly and assisting with the recovery.
All NFTs are safely relocated. Soon, owners will be able claim them back after revoking the exploitable approvals.
Addresses to revoke below.
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Also a good reminder to practice good wallet hygiene.
You don’t have to be perfect but you should try to be better than “still have years old ME approvals despite not using ME since 2024” approvals hygiene for wallets with anything of value. Revoke.cash y’all
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Redlining every European spelling and replacing with American spelling is my favorite part of reviewing cross-border documents.
That's right, it's "favorite" not "favourite." Deal with it. 😎
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Birdnals retweeted
Timely speech from @HesterPeirce given to @SIFMA today:
"Today society is at a crossroads. Down one path lies the status quo: more data collection, more intermediary surveillance, more “know your customer” requirements that turn our financial rails into a panopticon. Down the other path lies an opportunity to use new technologies to improve our ability to catch criminals while collecting less personal information than ever before, and monitoring more sparingly to protect Americans’ privacy."
Commissioner Hester M. Peirce, Looking for Change in Haystacks: Remarks before SIFMA’s Digital Assets Conference: sec.gov/newsroom/speeches-st…
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This MAY be a little too ambitious on what I want to read vs. what I’ll be able to read on my train to and from NYC tomorrow 🤦♂️🤷♂️
But shoutout @lex_node, @amandatums, and @milesjennings for their recent SEC submissions at the top of the pile. Looking forward to digging in!
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Birdnals retweeted
"Wall Street has a choice. It can adopt onchain finance and build on public blockchains, or it can watch its customers move to other institutions that do."
Great piece by @jchervinsky and @RebeccaRettig1 on the arrival of onchain finance.
fortune.com/2026/09/18/oncha…
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Birdnals retweeted
We're excited to announce @mansourtarek_, Co-Founder and CEO of @Kalshi, as a featured speaker at our TDC Chicago Signal Forum. Hear from him firsthand on 10/08 in Chicago: luma.com/r8ffjbpa
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Birdnals retweeted
Regulatory clarity drives sound markets. Pleased to see staff provide guidance on the potential risks and unique considerations associated with the listing of mention markets on @CFTC regulated exchanges and remind DCMs of their obligation to list only contracts not readily susceptible to manipulation.
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Birdnals retweeted
The FT has a fascinating story of a FinTech that was a Russian front moving billions of dollars (including for war-related purchases) through highly regulated banks without triggering sanctions, doing what the paper itself calls "old-fashioned money laundering."
That's how common this sort of thing is, it's old fashioned. It happened just a few years ago, despite the countless attempts to tighten sanctions rules due to the war.
News like this is now so commonplace it's boring.
And yet, the Journo-Academic-Banker complex still pretends like crypto is the main venue for "illicit use." All of which begs the question: What's the Straussian interpretation of this false narrative being peddled so frequently?
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It's been a while since I put my weekly crypto law recaps on social media (still emailed weekly to subscribers), but last week's update on market structure and SEC/CFTC response is worth posting.
Here's what happened in Crypto Law last week: nfttorney.com/2026/09/22/off…
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Yeah, this is a mistake that I hope gets fixed.
Senator Tillis was a good faith and honest broker throughout the Clarity Act process. Changing his vote to no was to keep the bill alive for even a 0.01% chance it could be passed this Congress.
I may not have agreed with all the deals he helped broker (which is how negotiations work. Anyone who insists on 100% of their asks isn’t negotiating, they are holding a bill hostage. And yes, this is a subtweet) but he has been a staunch advocate for market structure legislation.
He gets an A in my book. Maybe an A- for giving some banking trades the benefit of the doubt longer than he should have. But certainly his vote yes for Clarity before changing his vote to no as a procedural Hail Mary is what should be on his record here.
Kind of rough for @standwithcrypto to knock @SenThomTillis for his Clarity vote. It was a procedural move to let him bring the bill back up again if they were able to reach a deal later
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Birdnals retweeted
Tomorrow in DC! 🏛️
Looking forward to joining @CoinDesk for a conversation on crypto policy and regulation.
The future of digital assets will be shaped by the conversations we have today. Collaboration is where progress begins.
See you there! 🚀
#CryptoPolicy #CoinDesk
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Remind me again why consumers who would like to speculate on the outcomes of events should be forced to do it through gaming venues who want consumers to lose money as opposed to federally regulated trading venues who have no incentives to making consumers lose money?
Online gambling companies have collected mass amounts of user data. Former DraftKings employees told The New York Times they used data science techniques to identify gamblers who were more likely to respond to promotional offers by betting — and losing. nyti.ms/4hfgC3v
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