About Banner

区块链与数字资产诉讼与监管

订阅本所新闻

We have an unparalleled blockchain and digital asset litigation and regulatory practice.  Our experience in litigation, regulatory investigations defense, and counseling gives us deep and diverse perspectives on the ever-changing regulatory and technological crypto environment.  Our client base includes blockchain platform companies; layer one developers; leading digital asset venture and investment funds; digital asset exchanges; digital asset companies with regulated custodial services; digital asset financial services companies; founders of and investors in digital asset companies; artists, IP holders, and collectors in the NFT space; more traditional tech companies acting in the space; and cryptocurrency miners.  We have guided clients to successful resolution of pre-litigation disputes, victories in public litigation and private arbitrations, and successful outcomes in government and regulatory investigations and enforcement actions.  We advise clients in how to structure their business to avoid or mitigate regulatory and litigation risk.

We advise clients regarding the distinctive issues the digital asset industry faces – driven by the incredible innovations the blockchain revolution creates every day.  We see regulators stretching to try to apply old-world rules to cutting edge platforms and projects.  Companies struggle to address the tension between pure decentralization and the support necessary to enable a project to succeed, knowing that the chosen balance point may impact regulatory investigations and potential civil liability.  We see developers writing smart contracts that ostensibly establish a complete set of rules making source code the definitive law -- “code is law” -- only to later discover that gaps need to be filled, or a glitch creates unintended consequences.  We see well-intentioned developers facing potential liability for bugs in code they have contributed to public blockchains that the developers do not own.  Artists seek to protect their intellectual property rights from unscrupulous NFT minters, while innovators seek to turn NFTs into bundles of rights that go well beyond simply collectable images.  DAOs (decentralized autonomous organization), which have been around for some years, are now viewed as a potentially revolutionary way to organize in a decentralized way.  But the legal implications of those organizations – for example, the potential liability of members for the acts of the organization – is presently unclear.  DeFi (decentralized finance) is overtaking large swaths of activity traditionally carried out by centralized and highly-regulated entities, and regulators are scrambling to inject controls into the space.  The list goes on and on, with new issues emerging all the time.

Of course, many legal issues we see are similar to what we see in other developing tech areas – such as founders’ disputes; employment and equity compensation disputes; tortious interference between competitors; breach of contract cases; acquisition and spinoff-related disputes; traditional IP battles; and early-stage investor disputes. We have litigated them all.   

We stand ready to bring our substantial experience, knowledge, and success rate to help those in the digital asset industry navigate these and other issues.  Our digital asset practice leaders include individuals with extensive trial, regulatory, and white collar experience, and deep knowledge of digital assets.  For example, Dave Grable is a former federal prosecutor who has litigated numerous significant, high-stakes claims involving digital asset companies, in public litigation and private arbitrations where the amounts at stake have reached into the 11-figure range; Michael Liftik is the former Deputy Chief of Staff at the SEC, where he helped develop the agency’s earliest policy responses to digital assets, and who has represented many companies and individuals in ongoing SEC and CFTC digital asset investigations and private securities class action litigation; Katherine Lemire is the former Executive Deputy Superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services, where she oversaw all investigations and enforcement actions into virtual currency businesses and served as a member of the Virtual Currency Licensing Committee; and Alex Spiro is a former prosecutor who specializes in white collar crime and an array of complex issues in a wide range of industries.  Many other firm lawyers have expertise relevant to digital assets, both on the regulatory side and in civil disputes.

Our digital asset practice can help you or your company stay on the right side of the emerging law.  As the world’s best and most feared trial lawyers, we are ready to handle the broad spectrum of issues that you and your company face. 

READ MORE

Recent Representations

Major Commercial Disputes

  • We represented Ripple Labs in completely defeating a $175 million case brought by UK-based Tetragon Financial Group in Delaware Chancery Court. Tetragon claimed default under a Ripple shareholder agreement based on the SEC’s filing of a lawsuit against Ripple in December 2020.  The Court denied Tetragon’s preliminary injunction motion, granted Ripple’s summary judgment motion, and ordered Tetragon to pay well over $3 million in fees to Ripple.
  • We achieved a reversal from the Delaware Supreme Court of the Chancery Court’s dismissal of claims brought by our client BitGo against Galaxy Digital in connection with the parties’ 2021 merger—a $1.2 billion deal and the largest merger in the crypto industry at the time. BitGo sued Galaxy after Galaxy terminated the deal on a technicality. In a unanimous opinion, the Delaware Supreme Court ruled in our favor that there were reasonable disputes over the interpretation of the merger agreement.
  • We represented the founder and CEO of Aptos Labs against a putative co-founder seeking over $1 billion in damages. We obtained a series of favorable orders including the dismissal of more than half of the claims and then deposed the plaintiff’s deal counsel in such an effective manner that the case settled soon thereafter, with the putative co-founder relinquishing any role or ownership in Aptos.
  • We represented plaintiff Tiger Mines in the Southern District of New York in a civil action seeking remedies relating to the unwarranted freezing by Tether of crypto wallets worth over $160 million and successfully negotiated a favorable resolution.
  • We represented Youbi Capital, a leading crypto investment fund, in corporate governance dispute in New York State Supreme Court brought by a plaintiff who claimed to be a shareholder and director of the company and thus entitled to a stake in the company’s profits and distributions.
  • We represented Ripple in civil litigation involving fraud and breach of contract claims related to multiple agreements, including an option grant for 5 billion units of the cryptocurrency XRP.
  • We represent RootstockLabs in pending civil litigation in the Eastern District of New York relating to a token sale.
  • We represented a major fintech company in several confidential arbitrations litigated through trial involving cryptocurrency-related disputes, achieving successful resolutions for the client.

Regulatory, Criminal Defense, & Securities Litigation

  • We represented Richard Schueler (a/k/a Richard Heart), the creator of several crypto projects, in litigation against the SEC. The SEC sued Richard for selling unregistered securities and securities fraud. We moved to dismiss and obtained a complete dismissal of the complaint against Richard, the only total loss for the SEC in any major crypto-related enforcement litigation.
  • We represented Changpeng Zhao, the founder and former CEO of Binance, in the historic $4.3 billion resolution of a Department of Justice investigation into Binance and Zhao, brokering the plea deal and leading the sentencing advocacy that led to a four-month term – far below the government’s requested three years.
  • We also represented Changpeng Zhao in the SEC’s landmark 2023 case against him and Binance seeking billions in fines and penalties for alleged securities registration violations and allegedly misleading investors. That case resulted in a complete voluntary dismissal by the SEC in 2025.
  • Since 2021, we have represented Dfinity Foundation in parallel class actions in state and federal court alleging Dfinity offered and sold crypto tokens as unregistered securities, and seeking hundreds of millions in damages. In 2025, we secured clean dismissals in both cases: at summary judgment in the state case and at the pleading stage in the federal case.  The resultant decisions made important law regarding the scope of Section 12 liability and the limits imposed by the statute of repose applicable to the same.  We are now representing the Foundation in both appeals. In January 2026, the California Court of Appeal for the First Appellate District affirmed the lower court dismissal in the state case.  Notably, the appellate court reiterated and expanded upon the limits on the scope of Section 12 liability articulated by the lower court.
  • We represented Tesla and Elon Musk in defending against securities fraud claims related to Dogecoin, securing dismissal with prejudice of all claims after plaintiffs filed four amended complaints.
  • We secured a complete dismissal of all claims against Bprotocol Foundation and its founders in a class action securities lawsuit seeking over $100 million in rescission for the alleged issuance of unregistered securities. The resultant decision made important new law regarding the high threshold to hold crypto token issuers liable for soliciting purchases on secondary market exchanges, the challenges to rescission claims against token issuers, and the applicability to crypto trading of Morrison’s bar against adjudicating foreign transactions in the U.S.
  • In a parallel class action against our client Civic, plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed their action with prejudice following our above victory for Bprotocol.
  • We represented Fei Labs in the successful resolution of a state class action alleging violations of the registration provisions of the federal securities laws for 1% of alleged damages, addressing important issues relating to DAO liability, and in the process crafting and executing a unique settlement notice mechanism employing NFTs.
  • We represented Quantstamp, as well as various individuals, in civil litigation similar to the Bprotocol and Civic class actions that likewise sought damages and rescission for the alleged issuance of unregistered securities.
  • We achieved rare “closing letters” for an ICO token issuer and a crypto and futures exchange.
  • We represented several token issuer projects as critical third parties in connection with the SEC’s now-dismissed litigations against Coinbase, Binance, and Kraken.
  • We negotiated a global settlement with securities regulators in 35 U.S. states and nine Canadian provinces on behalf of a digital asset platform and its founder, with the regulators agreeing to withdraw all fraud charges and impose no monetary penalty.
  • We obtained a declination for a centralized cryptocurrency exchange in connection with a non-public CFTC investigation.
  • We represented multiple NFT platforms and developers in SEC enforcement matters and private securities litigation, including securing favorable resolutions in matters involving novel theories of NFT securities classification.
  • We advise and have litigated on behalf of crypto investors in pursuing strategic offensive litigation against regulatory overreach.

Bankruptcy & Recovery

  • We represented Rhodium Enterprises, Inc., a cryptocurrency miner, in its Chapter 11 case and a years-long lease dispute over its Rockdale, Texas mining facility. We led an expedited strategy that secured a litigation win and converted Rhodium’s damages claims into a recovery-enhancing asset. The result was a nine-figure resolution and confirmation of a liquidation plan that paid creditors in full (with interest), with residual value distributed to equity.
  • We serve as Special Counsel to the FTX bankruptcy debtors in the largest ever crypto bankruptcy. As investigatory and litigation counsel, we have already recovered hundreds of millions of dollars in value for the FTX estate and continue to pursue additional high-value lawsuits.  We investigated the role of various insiders, the conduct of outside professionals, and more than one hundred companies’ receipts of investments and loans.  Our investigatory work was analyzed in detail by an independent court-appointed examiner who approved all of it in a 210-page report.
  • We serve as counsel to the representatives of the post-plan Debtors Celsius Network LLC and Celsius Network Limited in an adversary proceeding seeking to recover billions of dollars in cryptocurrency wrongfully transferred to Tether, one of Celsius’s contractual counterparties.  The Court recently rejected Tether’s personal jurisdiction and extraterritoriality objections and allowed the vast majority of the case, including claims potentially worth over $4 billion, to proceed past a motion to dismiss. 
  • We represent crypto trading platform Bittrex Inc., in its chapter 11 case and in its litigation contesting the SEC’s determination that Bittrex owed a massive fine for allegedly operating an unregistered securities exchange. Through our efforts, Bittrex secured a settlement more than $100 million below the SEC’s demands. We have since guided the company through confirmation of its Chapter 11 case, funded by the first-ever debtor-in-possession loan in Bitcoin. Following plan confirmation, we defeated one group of creditors at trial in connection with $100 million in claims.
  • We acted as special counsel to Voyager Digital following its bankruptcy in connection with detailed independent investigations of claims worth hundreds of millions of dollars. In reliance on our work, the estate was able to secure favorable settlements with numerous parties.
  • We served as counsel to the Blockchain Recovery Investment Consortium (“BRIC”) in connection with the Celsius Network On behalf of BRIC, we pursued an aggressive objection and discovery plan that resulted in BRIC obtaining its contemplated role as Litigation Administrator.
  • We represent Bitvavo, a leading crypto trading platform in the Netherlands, in connection with its claims in the Genesis
  • We represented a large number of stakeholders and bondholders of Wirecard AG, one of the most prominent issuers of cryptocurrency debit cards, in pending insolvency proceedings involving the company.

Intellectual Property & Patent Litigation

  • We represent Bprotocol Foundation in the first significant crypto patent case involving decentralized finance. In this David and Goliath battle, Plaintiffs allege that, in 2017, they patented and then released the first fully functional decentralized exchange powered by a constant product automated market maker.  This marked a paradigm shift that allowed exchanges to operate without the need for traditional order books and market makers.  The patents-in-suit cover the technology that underlies the Uniswap Protocol, which has accounted for over $3 trillion in total value traded since 2018.
  • We represented defendant Coinbase in a patent infringement action brought by Veritaseum in the District of Delaware and obtained a complete dismissal.  The case was one of the first patent infringement cases brought relating to smart contract technology. 
  • We obtained a preliminary injunction on behalf of Alibaba Group Holding Limited to prevent trademark infringement by a foreign cryptocurrency issuer and promoter. It is one of the first such victories in the blockchain/cryptocurrency field anywhere in the United States, and the first by a major Chinese technology company.
  • We defended Gems.org on a trademark infringement claim by BitVault, Inc. involving the Gems cryptocurrency and protocol for microtasking using the Ethereum blockchain.
  • We advise a cryptocurrency exchange in confidential intellectual property matters, including evaluating patents, handling post-grant applications and supporting licensing activity.
  • We represented a major IP holder on an NFT deal and project that will go far beyond simple images and create membership and other rights.

International Matters

  • We represented a leading cryptocurrency trading platform in a cross-border dispute arising from the platform's decision to freeze a user's account following trading activity that raised serious AML concerns. We identified AML red flags and a regulatory violation in the user's jurisdiction, and built a well-documented record supporting the freeze. When the user, backed by investors, threatened arbitration, we led face-to-face negotiations and secured a settlement that resolved the matter within hours and protected the client from significant reputational and litigation risk. 
  • We represented a major fintech company in private arbitration proceedings in the United States and Singapore involving trademark and other disputes and relating to the cryptocurrency sector.
  • We advised a second layer blockchain company in connection with parallel Gibraltar arbitration proceeding under LCIA rules, Gibraltar civil claims, and civil claims in the Netherlands relating to a token sale.  We successfully obtained orders in the arbitration ordering the claimants not to proceed with the Gibraltar and Netherlands civil claims, and ultimately obtained cost orders against the Claimants, leading to their abandonment of the arbitration proceedings as well.
  • We advised a multinational cryptocurrency mining company on the UK AML risks of cryptocurrency mining.
  • We advise a major crypto investor in connection with regulatory and other proceedings in Turkey, Switzerland, and the Seychelles.
  • On behalf of the FTX estate we brokered a crucial resolution with the Bahamas regulatory authorities to ensure the bankruptcy and recovery efforts were centered in the United States.
  • We represent shareholders of FlowBank, a prominent Swiss online bank that provided services to the crypto sector in challenging the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) in ongoing proceedings before the Swiss Federal Administrative Court and in other affirmative action.
  • We work with numerous international clients, as highlighted above, in connection with disputes litigated in United States courts.
READ MORE
sticky image