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By Evan Jensen and Joe Wallin and Jordan Rood If you are considering token sales and selling blockchain tokens in the U.S., you not only have to worry about the U.S. federal securities laws (see the latest from the SEC here), but also the laws of each state
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One thing the SEC didn't say anything about in its analysis of The DAO token offering last week was the place in the ecosystem for “utility tokens.” This was bemoaned by at least one other legal commentator. As Trent Dykes' said, it “seems unlikely that the SEC
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By Evan Jensen and Joe Wallin On July 25, 2017, the SEC issued a number of important pronouncements with respect to initial coin offerings and blockchain tokens. The SEC issued: (1) a press release; (2) an investigative report into The DAO coin offering; (3) a Statement by the Divisions of
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NYSE Entrepreneur's Roadmap We participated in the publication of this book, The NYSE Entrepreneur's Roadmap. The NYSE Entrepreneur's Roadmap, from Concept to IPO Founders will find this book helpful as they navigate their startup's formation, financing, and ultimate liquidity. Where You Can
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If you are looking for cryptocurrency whitepapers, we have put together a list of some of the largest transactions over the last two years. Please help us and we will update this list as more come online. Cryptocurrency Whitepapers If you are interested in more information about this, please don&
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First, let’s get the terminology of term sheets out of the way. Whether the document that outlines your deal is called a “term sheet,” a “memorandum of understanding” or a “letter of intent,” these terms mean nearly the same thing. We will use the “term sheet” in this article,
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UW students and faculty interested in startups can talk monthly, face-to-face, with a venture capital investor and startup attorney. Randall Lucas of Voyager Capital and I hold open office hours the first Wednesday of each month at the University of Washington. Who comes to see us? A wide range, from
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(This was a longer post but I have abbreviated it to simplify it.) Right now there is no guidance from the IRS which expressly countenances electronic signatures on 83(b) elections. This is unfortunate. I would recommend the new administration issue guidance right away which countenances electronic signatures on 83(
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Congress is trying to make life easier for early stage and startup companies. This is good. But so far, nothing has been proposed to fix Section 83(b) of the Internal Revenue Code. Section 83(b) haunts every founder who receives shares subject to vesting. If you are founding an
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Congress is preparing a bill known as the Financial CHOICE Act of 2016. There is a lot in the bill (and so it is worth scanning the table of contents for issues you might care about). One of the provisions of the bill, Section 1066, would revise the Form D
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The first bill out of the new Congress next year might set the accredited investor definition to adjust with inflation. As the bill is currently drafted, every 5 years the financial thresholds would go up based on inflation. The bill is called the Financial Choice Act. You can find it
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Indexing the Accredited Investor Standard to Inflation: A Bad Idea Now that the election is over, it is unclear, at least to me, which direction startup public policy will take. It is in all of our best interests that we have a startup public policy that promotes innovation and creativity.