Cosgrove Gaynard Solicitors

A further regulation called the ePrivacy Regulation is being proposed to come into effect next year to further protect privacy in regard to electronic communications.

Landmark case for the inheritance of social media pages and other digital assets.

It is really not for the SEC to determine whether tokens are security; this is to be determined by legislation or for the courts to determine. To date no court has determined whether or not tokens are deemed to be securities. That said it is clear that the SEC has interpreted the matter and are finding tokens to be securities. There is a case currently ongoing in New York which may however become the first court in the world to rule on whether or not tokens are deemed to be securities.

Initial Coin Offerings (ICO's) are not just for technology companies . They are often the beginning of a digital revolution for existing Companies which are already established In their field whether it be healthcare, insurance, property or another industry. Despite some bad press, the tightening of regulation in jurisdictions such as in the US, and indeed Facebook and Twitter banning advertisements , money has been pouring into the ICO market with $3 billion raised through ICOs in the first two months of this year. This is half the value of all funds raised throughout 2017, according to Coindesk data.

The division of assets on a divorce is one of the most contentious issues facing both couples and family lawyers. With the advent of digital assets such as cryptocurrencies lawyers are having to consider digital assets and their division in the dissolution of a marriage more and more frequently.

In the context of insolvency, insolvency practitioners now have to deal with a new class of “digital asset” which I expect will cause some difficulty in terms of tracing and identification of assets, particularly taking into mind that there are a number of privacy coins designed to specifically avoid tracking and, indeed, there are crypto exchanges registered outside of EU jurisdictions and therefore avoiding stringent privacy policies which you would expect in this jurisdiction.