Jason Gottlieb Quoted in Cointelegraph on Ramifications of New York State’s Proposed Crypto Fraud Bill
Partner Jason Gottlieb, chair of our White Collar and Regulatory Enforcement Group, was quoted in a May 2, 2022 Cointelegraph article entitled “Has New York State Gone Astray in Its Pursuit of Crypto Fraud?” In the article, Jason was critical of a new proposed bill that creates criminal liability for various blockchain activities.
Jason said that despite the bill’s claims, it “is not aligned with the spirit of blockchain… and has serious flaws that would impede legitimate developers; and the true spirit of blockchain is to encourage development while protecting participants.” Jason further stated, regarding one of the proposed new offenses, “The provision that makes it a fraud for developers to sell more than 10% of tokens within five years is preposterous… Worse, it’s sloppy legislative drafting. The rule is easily circumvented by creating a massive amount of ‘not for sale’ tokens that simply get locked in a vault, to prevent any sale from crossing the 10% threshold.”
Following the proposal of this bill, the New York State Assembly also passed a two-year ban on non-green Bitcoin mining. However, Jason stated that the two events were not comparable. “The Bitcoin mining legislation, while misguided and faulty, at least comes from an understandable desire to safeguard our environment in interactions with a new technology.”
The article concluded with a final thought by Jason: “New York lawmakers need to consider whether they want New York to attract and nurture a burgeoning fintech industry, or whether they want to pass more ill-conceived laws that serve little purpose other than to scare away companies.”
Read the article here.
Contacts
- Jason P. Gottlieb Partner & Chair, Digital Assets; Chair, White Collar and Regulatory Enforcement
- jgottlieb@morrisoncohen.com
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Our Digital Assets Group represents some of the largest and most significant names in the sector, drawing upon our depth of experience and comprehensive understanding of cryptocurrency, DeFi, DAOs and NFTs.
