Peeling Back The Law Layer: The Crypto Legal Landscape in 2023
A micro-course on core crypto legal concepts (with a round-up of domestic & international policy developments + things to watch out for on the Hill)
👋 Hi, we’re Inesha & Reshini. We write this newsletter as a lawyer 👩🏽⚖️ & a former policy advisor 👩🏽💼 at U.S. Treasury who have been involved in crypto these last few years. Crypto forces us to reexamine our thinking on so many of the foundations of American law – from how we conceptualize property to how we organize capitalist enterprises and define what constitutes a security. Yet there is a dearth of lawyers & policymakers who are smart on crypto. And a dearth of crypto folks who understand American law. We want to bridge this divide. 🤝
We hope you’ll invite us into your 📥 inbox each week to share lessons on core legal concepts in crypto + updates on what’s going on in U.S. crypto law & policy. 🏛
Follow along on Twitter @TheLawLayer & please don’t hesitate to reach out with feedback or questions on Twitter @ineshap or @reshinip. 💬
Let’s get started.
With responses to President Biden’s Executive Order (EO) on digital assets and regulators figuring out how to respond to the FTX Collapse & SBF Drama / Terra-Luna Collapse / Celsius’ Implosion/ 3AC’s bankruptcy & more 😳, regulation in crypto is on everyone’s mind.
We’re calling it now: 2023 will see major crypto movement on the Hill.
Policymakers already have a mandate (the EO & current events) to propose rules of the road to make crypto safe for everyone. With recent developments, many are deeply wondering what those rules should be.
It’s hard to keep up with what regulators are seeing & doing, let alone understand the legal concepts that they’re wrestling with. But to understand the existing legal architecture is to understand what’s so fascinating about crypto. In pushing for decentralization, crypto is fundamentally testing & reshaping this very architecture — from how corporations are organized to how we think about our digital privacy to property rights… and much more.
Puzzled / bemused / intrigued? We’re here to give you a roadmap, a kind of primer so that you can sound smart at that 🍸 cocktail party & can feel confident enough to start digging in and learning more. This space needs people who are smart on law & policy too — and we want to make all of this accessible to you.
So, join us each week, as we take you through the areas of law that crypto touches - securities, commodities, intellectual property, corporate law and beyond. We’ll give you the basics (here and on Twitter- check us out @TheLawLayer): from the legal test to the case law you should (hint hint) drop in conversation to how the law has been applied so far. This newsletter will summarize our micro-lessons and share updates on policy & legal developments we’re seeing across the U.S. and internationally.
Shall we get started? Here’s our roadmap:
🔒 Securities, securities — When is a token / NFT / etc. a security? Why does it matter? Who is this guy Howey I keep hearing about?
🌾 Oh, but it could be a commodity instead? — Inside the great security vs. commodity showdown & who comes out on top for crypto
🖼 NFTs — NBD we’re just re-structuring digital property rights
🪙 Stablecoins — Is the name a misnomer or are these really stable?
📄 Smart Contracts — Wait, how is this different from an ordinary contract? The base layer for blockchain technology is definitely something we should talk about.
👯♀️ DAOs — Let’s get DAOn to business. What is the legal structure of a DAO and what have recent legal movements indicated for its future?
📈 DeFi — DeFine that again? Does any regulation apply?
And more…
We’re extremely grateful to be supported by Boys Club as their first-ever grantee! Check out the full announcement below:
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Remember, we’ll also be tweeting out daily, digestible nuggets from our weekly newsletter @TheLawLayer, so make sure to follow along with us there.