Floating Liens Over Crypto-in-Commerce

and | July 3, 2023 | Uniform Commercial Code

Below is the abstract for “Floating Liens Over Crypto-in-Commerce,” available for download on SSRN.

Commercial law and crypto are colliding. Against the backdrop of explosive growth (and discord) in the digital asset market, there has been a series of recent revisions to American commercial law aimed at addressing new and emerging technologies. These changes to the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) are designed to facilitate the buying and selling of digital assets as well as their use as collateral. However, to date, the literature exploring these changes has mainly focused on understanding the basics of the new regime.

This Essay moves beyond that baseline by showing how the UCC amendments can be used to structure more complex secured credit arrangements that tap into the borrowed capital potential of blockchain technology. Specifically, this study explains how these recent law reforms—in concert with the inherent capabilities of distributed ledgers, smart contracts, and cryptography—can be used to create a floating lien (the quintessential financing device in American commercial law) over crypto inventory.

Share

Christopher K. Odinet

University of Iowa College of Law

Christopher K. Odinet is the Josephine R. Witte Professor of Law at University of Iowa College of Law. His research focuses on commercial/consumer finance and property law, with an emphasis on mortgage lending, digital/crypto assets, and financial regulation.

Andrea Tosato

University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School

Andrea Tosato is an Associate Professor in Commercial Law at the School of Law of the University of Nottingham and a Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. He is a leading private law scholar with internationally recognized expertise in the intersection between commercial law and new technologies. He serves as the Associate Research Director of the Permanent Editorial Board of the Uniform Commercial Code.

0 Comments