A cityscape with skyscrapers is overlaid with digital graphics and the words "SMART CONTRACTS AND DAOS FROM A LAWYER'S POINT OF VIEW," along with a symbol resembling the Ethereum logo.

Smart Contracts and DAOs: A Lawyer’s Point of View

I recently returned from the iTech Law Conference in Washington, DC, where I spoke on a panel about smart contracts and DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations). I was joined by two impressive international tech lawyers, Julia Pazos (Brazil) and Katarzyna Szczudlik (Poland). These are some of the questions our panel discussed. How Do Lawyers Think About

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How to Tokenize Real Estate Interests in a Legally Compliant Way

How to Tokenize Real Estate Tokenization of assets is one of the most common discussion topics in my blockchain/web3 practice. Both tangible and intangible and intangible assets can be tokenized. I have discovered that many first-time founders get lost in the cool functionality of their product and rarely step back to determine what the marketplace

Are Crypto Airdrops Legal?

Over the last few years, airdrops have become much more common in the crypto space. Airdrops are often used to market or promote a crypto startup or platform. But like with so many other things in the space, their legal status remains murky. In this post, I do a deep dive on the legality of

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Top Five Concerns When Buying a Regulated Business

Over the years, our corporate attorneys have developed a niche in a host of regulated and soon-to-be-regulated industries across the globe — everything from healthcare, to cannabis, to banking and finance, to securities regulation for Web3 and other companies. And a huge part of that practice has been in mergers and acquisitions (M&A), or the

cyrpto airdrops

The Current Legal Status of Staking in the Crypto World

The Legal Status of Staking in the Crypto World With BTC, ETH, and other cryptocurrencies trending upward in Q4 2023 and into 2024, it is a good time to revisit an issue I have been thinking about lately. What is the legal status of staking? The Basics About Staking According to Coinbase, staking is multifaceted

The Ripple Case and tokens as a security

When is a Token a Security? Lessons from the SEC v Ripple Case

With the SEC v. Ripple decision emerging recently, many commentators (see here and here) have focused on the holding of the case, which is the correct place to start. This post focuses on the holding, plus additional matters discussed in the decision and additional insights gleaned from the rest of the decision. Foundational Facts of

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Which Industries Can Benefit From Smart Contracts?

With Web3 on the horizon and digital transformation in the air, blockchain technologies like smart contracts are becoming more common in business processes. Every company should be asking how can you incorporate these technologies into your business model. For context, a smart contract is a self-enforcing piece of code that exists on a blockchain and

Web3 Lawyers

Is Web3 Dead? Not From Where We are Sitting

Even with some high-profile enforcement actions and general mayhem in the blockchain industry (see here and here), many founders continue to build their projects, gain traction in the market, and receive funding. We know this because we speak with many such entrepreneurs every week. Below is an excerpt from an email I recently sent to