Mayer Brown
Digital Assets Download
 

March 8, 2024
 

 

 

For the Uninitiated: Digital Assets Download is 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 & Cryptocurrency group. (Check out all of our previous editions of the Digital Assets Download.)

Sharing is Caring: Please share this edition of the Digital Assets Download via LinkedIn and X, and tell us how we can better serve as your oracle to the digital assets world. 
 
 
Lead Block
 

Perspectives and insights from Mayer Brown lawyers and other thought leaders that touch on digital assets, decentralized finance, cryptocurrencies and related fields.

SEC Adopts Rules To Require Registration Of Certain Persons Engaging In Liquidity-Providing Activities As “Dealers” And “Government Securities Dealers”

On February 5, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) adopted new rules that aim to provide clarity on the types of persons and entities that are required to register as a “dealer,” which is a significant undertaking. The rules apply broadly to persons or entities that provide significant liquidity for all types of securities, which in the SEC’s view includes most crypto assets. In this Legal Update, our team highlights the key takeaways from the SEC’s announcement of the rules and some practical challenges presented by the rules in their current form; in particular, challenges faced by DeFi market products, structures, and activities, such as decentralized exchange (a “DEX”) and automated market maker activities.

 
 
 
News
Events
 

Selected events for deeper dives into different parts of the digital assets and DeFi world.

Mayer Brown Partner Castelluccio Speaks at the Crypto Valley Association Meeting

On February 26, Mayer Brown partner Joe Castelluccio presented to the Crypto Valley Association (Switzerland) on the subject of recently-approved spot Bitcoin ETFs in the United States.

Commissioner Johnson Delivers Keynote Address at New York City Bar Emerging Technologies Symposium

On February 23, FTC Commissioner Kristin Johnson delivered a keynote address at the New York City Bar Emerging Technologies Symposium discussing building a regulatory framework for AI in financial markets.

 

 
 
 
Learn the Lingo
 

For those new to the digital assets and DeFi world, each edition of the Digital Assets Download will highlight a different term to help you be a part of the conversation.

Hash/Cryptographic Hash Function

A hash is an encrypted string of alphanumeric characters that registers a unique place on a blockchain. The string of alphanumeric characters has a fixed length and structure, generated when an input string of any length—such as a block of transactions on a blockchain—is run through a mathematical algorithm, called a cryptographic hash function.

Hashing is performed by the nodes of a blockchain and is a one-way function—if you input the same data, you will arrive at the same unique string, but you cannot reverse the function and decipher the input data based on the hash.

While hash functions have been used in cryptography for decades, they are used in blockchains for a number of key purposes, including to derive addresses for users, to keep track of particular transactions, to store large amounts of data more economically and, importantly, to connect blocks in a blockchain (i.e., each block contains a hash of the previous block). Different blockchains may use different hashing algorithms—Bitcoin, for example, uses the SHA-256 hash algorithm.
 
 
 

Writings on the Wall, Translating ‘Crypto’ Terms with Mayer Brown

From Airdrop to Wrapped Token, our illustrated glossary, “Writings on the Wall, Translating Securities with Mayer Brown,” has been updated with additional digital assets and cryptocurrency terms. Check out our “featured” list for the crypto terms and the full list of terms.
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