b'INTRODUCTION GOODWINThe SEC rejected an application to list a Bitcoininvestigation into potential violations of New ETF that was intended to allow investorsYorks securities laws based on the New York effectively to trade Bitcoin by trading the ETFAttorney Generals assertion of broad jurisdiction rather than Bitcoin itselfat least the tenth suchover the conduct of exchanges and issuers that application that the SEC has rejected. affects New York. The appeal concerns (among other things) whether the New York Attorney SEC Settlements and Enforcement Actions General should be permitted to impose the full power of the state government on Bitfinex and SEC settlements and enforcements actionsTether before a determination is made that tether continued to focus on ICOs conducted in 2017is actually within the New York Attorney Generals and 2018. In each case, the SEC argued that thestatutory mandate.digital assets were investment contracts under the federal securities laws by applying the test articulated in S.E.C. v. W. J. Howey Co., 328 U.S.Private Litigation293 (1946): (1)whether there is an investment ofIn securities class action litigation against Ripple money, (2) whether there is a common enterprise,Labs, a court ruled that purchasers of XRP tokens and (3)whether there is a reasonable expectationnot only directly from Ripple but also on the of profits to be derived from the efforts of others.secondary market could bring claims under the The SEC settlement with Enigma MPC during Q1federal and California securities laws. 2020 reflected common elements of prior SECIn securities class action litigation against Centra settlements, including (1) registration as a class ofTech, a court ruled that the damages to purchasers securities; (2) a notice and claims process by whichof CTR tokens should be calculated in terms of the purchasers of tokens might request a refund, anddigital currency used to purchase the tokens.(3) a monetary penalty. The SEC enforcement actionswhich continued* * *to be headlined by actions against Kik Interactive and Telegram Groupresulted in a preliminaryIn our review of U.S. regulatory and legal injunction preventing Telegram from distributingdevelopments in digital currency + blockchain more than US $1.7 billion worth of tokens toduring Q1 2020, we look at each of the above purchasers in the ICO. developments in more detail.State Regulatory ActionsBitfinex (one of the worlds largest cryptocurrency exchanges) and Tether (the issuer of a stablecoin cryptocurrency backed by real world fiat currencies) appealed an order allowing the New York Attorney General to proceed with an 5'