Launching today: A curated mix of insights and headlines that provide a Layer 3 Legal Perspective™ on the digital assets multiverse – created by Mayer Brown’s global Digital Assets, Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Group. Enjoy this edition of the Digital Assets Download below and find previous editions here.
The Lead Block
News Node
A curated selection of headlines and news from around this multiverse—including deals, developments and other disruptions in DeFi.
Cryptocurrency trading and lending firm BlockFi reached a settlement with the SEC regarding its high-yield crypto-lending product offered to US residents. The terms of the settlement include payments by BlockFi to the SEC and state regulators, and other agreements by BlockFi to pursue SEC registrations for its products going forward. BlockFi and the SEC each put out a statement with its own perspective on the settlement:
BlockFi Statement
SEC Statement
Evertas, an insurance platform focused on the cryptocurrency space, has been granted approval to call itself a Lloyd’s of London coverholder – the first such arrangement with the three-century-year-old institution.
Colorado will accept bitcoin for payment of state taxes by the summer, according to its governor, Jared Polis. That said, Colorado won’t hold bitcoin and will convert it to US dollars.
A group of well-established digital assets companies in the US have joined together to create a tool to address compliance with global anti-money laundering (AML) rules. The Travel Rule Universal Solution Technology (TRUST) initiative attempts to address AML data sharing requirements prescribed by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
The IRS updated a form for voluntarily reporting tax-law noncompliance to expand the ability to report on cryptocurrency holdings.
Select Events
Selected events for deeper dives into different parts of the digital assets and DeFi world.
Surge Protection: Preparing for the Coming Wave of Enforcement Webinar Series.
With the change in administration, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced in 2021 that a significant increase in corporate enforcement is coming. This policy shift is expected to add substantially to the burdens companies and executives under investigation may face, especially when coupled with additional announcements that the DOJ will surge resources dedicated to corporate enforcement. Mayer Brown has prepared a series of webinars which will include leading practitioners, in-house counsel and former government officials across practices to provide practical guidance and insight into how companies can prepare for these changes. The series will cover a wide range of topics including cryptocurrency; the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act; securities; anti-money laundering; sanctions and export control; cybersecurity; and antitrust issues.
US Banking Regulation: What to Expect in 2022
Mayer Brown partners Jeff Taft and Matt Bisanz discussed what forward-looking issues US banking regulators will likely refocus on this year, including digital assets activities.
Learn the Lingo
Total Value Locked (TVL)
TVL is a form of fundamental value analysis for a particular DeFi protocol (or for DeFi overall) and has emerged as one of the most widely-used metrics for evaluating and comparing protocols.
TVL is used to assess the levels of capital being used in a protocol, as well as its popularity and near-term viability.
For comparison to another commonly-used financial metric for companies: The ratio of a protocol’s market capitalization (i.e., the total market value of all of a protocol’s tokens in circulation, measured at current market prices) to a protocol’s TVL is analogous to a traditional public company’s price/book ratio (i.e., the company’s market capitalization divided by the net book value of the company’s assets on its balance sheet).
