Tangents from Coin Center Jerry Brito, Peter Van Valkenburgh, Neeraj Agrawal, Robin Weisman

In this episode of Tangents, Peter and Jerry discuss the recent decision in the SEC v. Ripple case. They explain that the decision follows the same interpretation of the securities laws that Coin Center has longe advocated, namely that commodity tokens can be the subject of securities offerings without being securities themselves. Jerry and Peter also address misreadings of the opinion that have led some to conclude that it implies that sophisticated investors will get protection of the securities laws while retail participants will not. Finally, they discuss one issue they have with the judgment.

In this episode of Tangents, Peter and Jerry discuss the Tornado Cash sanctions list designation by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. As they explain in a legal analysis of the case, they believe that OFAC has overstepped its legal authority by adding certain Tornado Cash smart contract addresses to the SDN List, that this action potentially violates constitutional rights to due process and free speech, and that OFAC has not adequately acted to mitigate the foreseeable impact its action would have on innocent Americans.

In this episode of Tangents, Peter and Jerry discuss the SEC's proposed rulemaking on the definition of ‘exchange’ and Alternative Trading Systems. Bottom line: The Commission’s proposed redefinition of “exchange” violates the First Amendment by requiring a license to speak–even of open source developers. It’s unconstitutional and they should change it. We explain why the First Amendment arguments against the proposed rule are strong and why the Supreme Court is poised to rule against the SEC should it finalize this new rule as drafted.

In this episode of Tangents, Peter, Jerry, and Neeraj discuss the narrative and substance how cryptocurrency is implicated in the sanctions on Russia, as well as the Biden executive order on digital assets.

In this episode of Tangents, Peter and Jerry discuss a new backgrounder just published by Coin Center that explains what is "staking" to policymakers who sometimes are confused about how that word is used in different cryptocurrency contexts.

In the second part of their discussion of the crypto tax provisions in the infrastructure bill, Jerry, Peter, and Robin recount what happened after the Senate passed it and bring us up to date on efforts to fix the provisions in the House and elsewhere.