If there was ever a regulatory grace period for virtual currencies and blockchain technology, it is officially over. Five federal regulators—The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the US Treasury Department (FinCEN), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)—all recently issued statements or took actions in which they clarified their positions on the scope of their jurisdiction over multiple aspects of virtual currency and certain types of blockchain enterprises. State, foreign and multilateral regulators have also taken actions to reign in virtual currencies. Companies and investors that are now working with these technologies, or that are exploring how they might fit into their existing business strategies, must be ready to justify their activities on a comprehensive basis from regulatory, compliance, tax and business perspectives.
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