Cryptocurrency: In The Face Of Increased Enforcement, Be Prepared

This summer was a busy one for cryptocurrency regulators, with aggressive actions potentially signaling an increase in consumer protection compliance activity.

In August alone, the New York Department of Financial Services ("DFS") brought its first enforcement action against a DFS-licensed "virtual currency business" – resulting in a $30 million settlement with cryptocurrency investing platform Robinhood Crypto, LLC – and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged 11 people in an alleged crypto pyramid and Ponzi scheme called Forsage. The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned and banned currency mixer Tornado Cash, alleging that the platform laundered more than $7 billion in virtual currency since launching in 2019.