Lewis Cohen’s Post

Join us for an expert panel and dive into the myths and realities of DeFi’s role in illicit finance. Featuring DLx Law's own Angela Angelovska-Wilson, the panel will explore innovative policy solutions that safeguard financial freedom and consider how to address many of the concerns that policymakers might have. We'll see you there!

I’m thrilled that @nubank has selected @Lightspark to bring the Bitcoin Lightning Network ⚡️ and Universal Money Addresses via the @umastandard 🌐 to its platform and customers. “The partnership with Lightspark, which has developed an excellent technical solution for the Bitcoin Lightning Network, is another step in Nubank’s mission to provide the best solutions for our clients and reinforce our long-term relationship with all of them. The future integration of Lightning underscores Nu’s ongoing mission to offer more efficient services with greater speed and lower costs through blockchain technology.” — Thomaz Lysakowski Fortes, CGA® Executive Director, @nubank Cripto. We’re working with the Nubank team on the technical integration and will have more to share in the future. Find out more here: https://lnkd.in/gTzcH-cd

A rare public appeal from my side concerning the latest public consultation by ESMA on the RTS/guidelines concerning detection and prevention of market abuse under MiCA. The first question worryingly leaves the door open to the possible interpretation that "persons professionally arranging and executing transactions" (PPAETs) could be extensively interpreted to include miners/validators. This would mean that they would be obliged to abide by Article 92 of MiCA, requiring them to have in place arrangements, systems and procedures to prevent, detect and report to the national competent authorities instances of possible market abuse. Not only would this be a departure from the current interpretation that this is limited to purely centralised service providers that include "buy-side firms, proprietary traders, DEA providers and non-financial firms that trade on their own account as part of their business activities", but it would be a death knell to any miners/validators located in the EU/EEA. It is simply an impossible obligation for miners/validators to abide by for various reasons, not least of which being that a) they do not execute transactions (it's the collective consensus of the network which does), b) in certain networks they are not the ones responsible for 'arranging' transactions in blocks (and in any case, they are unlikely to be dealing on own account), and c) in Permissionless DLT Networks as defined by ESMA are excluded from key obligations under MiCA simply because there is "no formal contractual relationship (such as a service level agreement) is required to interact with permissionless blockchains... permissionless DLT networks may be considered a form of "common good" resource" (quoted from the consultation document) - a critical difference when compared with the normal understanding of PPAETs, which provide no services whatsoever that may be deemed to support a "common good" resource. The deadline to provide feedback to this consultation document is EOD tomorrow. I urge you to address the questions, particularly question 1, so as to avoid a potential disaster-in-the-making. Link to the consultation in the comments below.

The Tools for Humanity Legal team is looking for a Senior Counsel to lead legal across #LatAm. This is a great generalist role, sitting under the leadership of AGC Enrique Gonzalez. Please send great candidates our way! Vamos!