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Moorari Shah is a partner in the Finance and Bankruptcy Practice Group in the firm's Los Angeles and San Francisco offices.

On May 1, NYDFS settled with a cryptocurrency trading platform over the company’s cybersecurity deficiencies, resulting in a consent order and $1.2 million fine for the crypto company. NYDFS alleged “multiple deficiencies in the Company’s cybersecurity program” discovered during NYDFS examinations in 2018 and 2020. The examinations prompted an investigation, ultimately leading to the consent order and the fine.Continue Reading New York Settles with Crypto Company, Proposes Crypto Legislation

In an apparent follow up to President Biden’s March Executive Order on Digital Assets (which we previously discussed here), this week, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a similar executive order aiming to foster responsible innovation, bolster California’s innovation economy, and strengthen consumer protection through creating a transparent regulatory and business environment for Web3 companies.  Newsom’s executive order credits Biden’s executive order as paving the way for the assessment of key issues raised by crypto-assets and sets California on a path to harmonize its nascent crypto regulatory framework with forthcoming federal rules and guidelines and, hopefully, create regulatory clarity for businesses and consumers.
Continue Reading Governor Newsom Signs Blockchain Executive Order

In a novel transaction for the blockchain and mortgage industries, a blockchain-focused financial services company and an investment firm announced the completion of a transaction involving the origination of digital mortgage loans and transfer of ownership via blockchain technology. The eNote digital mortgage assets were originated on the Provence Blockchain and registered on the financial services company’s Digital Asset Registration Technologies (DART) platform. DART monitors blockchain-based asset transfers and is intended to enable an efficient alternative to the existing loan tracking database systems.
Continue Reading Recent Transaction Transfers Ownership of Digital Mortgage Loans via Blockchain

On February 8, the House Financial Services Committee held a hearing titled, “Digital Assets and the Future of Finance: The President’s Working Group on Financial Markets” to consider legislative recommendations from the President’s Working Group (PWG) report on stablecoins (we previously discussed the report in an earlier Consumer Finance & FinTech Blog post here).   
Continue Reading House Financial Services Committee Focuses on PWG Stablecoin Report