Insights & News / Andrey Yanai

The SEC is taking a regulation by enforcement stance toward NFTs and is creating legal uncertainty in the field. Will the Israel Securities Authority follow suit?

After considering public comments, the Israel Securities Authority is promulgating a revised draft bill seeking to regulate the field of digital assets.

Regulation by enforcement is designing tests to ascertain which cryptographic assets fall under the definition of “security” in the wake of the XRP crypto token court ruling.

The draft of Israel’s Arrangements Law – Economic Plan for 2023-2024 addresses digital assets extensively for the first time. The draft bill contains a section dedicated to the regulation of digital assets and addresses stablecoins, taxation issues, the banking system, DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations) and more.

The Israel Securities Authority recently published a proposal for a series of legislative amendments relating to digital (cryptographic) assets, whose implications go beyond the realm of digital assets and do not herald much good news for Israeli crypto ventures.

Activity in the form of financial decentralization (Decentralized Finance - DeFi) does not exempt from requirements in the field of prevention of money laundering prohibition or compliance with sanctions. It turns out that DeFi is subject to the same "laws of gravity" as projects in the traditional financial industry.

The Israeli CMISA published two draft circulars about its intent to tighten the supervision over crypto assets, in the wake of the Celsius crypto meltdown.

The Bank of Israel is proposing to regulate the provision of services to licensed cryptocurrency service-providers so that banks will not be able to sweepingly refuse to provide service and will have to formulate a risk management policy.

For the first time, companies providing virtual currency services will be required to comply with Israeli anti-money laundering provisions. This follows an amendment to the Prohibition of Money Laundering Order that recently came into effect. The amendment will apply to financial asset service providers obligated to hold a license under the Control of Financial Services Law.

While Israel’s banks are in no hurry to accept the blockchain industry and are avidly trying to keep their distance from cryptocurrencies, this is not the case elsewhere.

Recently, the major global securities, derivatives and financial trade associations sent a joint letter to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), which develops banking supervision standards and criteria, to adopt regulation that will enable their involvement in the crypto asset sector.

The Tel Aviv District Court recently handed down a ruling in the Ceragon Networks case. The ruling states that dual-listed companies may face exposure to lawsuits based on the liability rules under Israeli law.

Over the past year, raising capital through SPACs has become a hot trend on Wall Street. The Israel Securities Authority recently published the conditions and principles for SPACs to launch IPOs.

The Israel Securities Authority recently established guidelines on when a cryptographic currency (token) is considered a security. The ISA determined that Kirobo tokens meet the definition of a security. This is primarily because the The Israel Securities believes investors would intend to purchase the tokens for financial purposes. In addition, these investors would anticipate their holdings to go up in value.

The Israeli Securities Authority has announced that distribution entities now may be liable for the contents of a prospectus. In a staff position paper published in late July, the ISA changed the rules of the game in the underwriting field by determining that a distributor, or an entity associated with a distributor, that purchases securities during an issuance and sells them within a short period of time (six months or less) shall be viewed by the ISA as an underwriter and shall be liable for the prospectus.

Prompted by the use of digital currencies to fund terror and other illegal activity, the Israel Money Laundering and Terror Financing Prohibition Authority has published a document aimed at assisting financial bodies and law enforcement agencies to identify improper activity in this field.

After Libra, Facebook’s ambitious global digital currency venture, faced fierce resistance from regulators around the world, Facebook has announced “Libra 2.0.” The venture is set to undergo far-reaching changes that, on the one hand, will likely do away with regulatory concerns, but, on the other, will force Facebook to give up its original vision, i.e. a quick and simple transfer of digital currencies between accepted users worldwide without the need for a bank account.

The ISA's commission for examining the regulation necessary for the advancement of digital markets published a report that focuses on platforms for the issuing, trading, and clearing of securities that make use of blockchain technology.

Regulatory resistance and legal proceedings by the US Securities and Exchange Commission are hindering the realization of one of the greatest promises of blockchain technology – the transfer of cryptographic currencies and assets between users without an intermediary.

The Israel Securities Authority recently published a staff position that has material implications on the hedge fund sector in Israel and on the investor public, including the mode of incorporation of hedge funds and the limit on the number of investors in a fund.

After a long wait, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has permitted a startup company to raise funds from the general public through a supervised security token offering (STO) under Reg A+ regulations. Effectively, this is the first time a public STO was granted regulatory approval in the United States.

With the initial coin offering (ICO) era considered over, it seems there is a new tool for financing - the initial exchange offering (IEO). This method of financing is more transparent and reliable for investors, entrepreneurs, and markets, providing partial solutions to the many disadvantages exposed in ICO financing.

The Israel Securities Authority has published a position paper summarizing updated information about the processes for listing and delisting dual-listed companies on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and additional stock exchanges abroad. The position paper provides information both to dual-listed companies and companies considering dual listing.

The Tel Aviv District Court issued a ruling recently on a case concerning a bank’s conduct with funds whose source is digital currencies. The court expressly ruled that the bank’s blanket ban on the opening of bank accounts by clients engaging in digital currency activity is unreasonable.

The committee appointed by the Israel Securities Authority (ISA) to examine regulation of cryptocurrency offerings to the public has published the outline of its regulatory policy in a final report submitted to the ISA chairman. The committee recommended focusing on regulatory models that offer structural flexibility.