Digital Assets & Crypto
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Whether you are a crypto start-up obtaining a crypto AML licence, a VC firm investing in metaverse businesses or a financial institution offering digital assets to your clients, our Digital Assets team offers tailor-made advice to your needs. Through deep legal expertise, a true interest in the industry beyond just legal issues and active participation in the wider eco-system, we are perfectly placed to support you in the ideation and implementation of your project or transaction and help you ensure it will be a success.
We advise on digitalisation and related issues across the finance and other industry sectors, including numerous FCA applications, international initial coin offerings (ICOs) and security token offerings (STOs). We support our clients, including investment funds, family offices, CSPs and other services providers and participants in the blockchain ecosystem on M&A transactions involving entities in the digital assets sector, as well as on regulatory, data protection and licensing matters. They turn to us for advice on the creation and commercialization of cryptocurrency, security tokens, NFTs and other digital asset platforms along with the intellectual property rights that underpin these assets. We support clients throughout the lifecycle of their investment, product or service, help crossing regulatory hurdles, and support on complex disputes involving regulators and business partners.
Our client’s work with us because
- Embedded in the community – we are truly interested in everything crypto, blockchain and metaverse. We enjoy cooperating with industry bodies and academics, have our voice heard in government thinking groups and tasks forces, attend and organise events and regularly publish legal briefings, research reports and opinion pieces. Simply put, we offer more than just legal support. Our team even includes a dedicated crypto consultant, who is a leading voice in UK crypto, a best-selling author on crypto and expert in crypto business models.
- Specialists – we have a team of legal specialists, which include those hired out of in-house roles at crypto firms and regulators, all with an in-depth understanding of the needs of crypto businesses. Our team of lawyers specialise in crypto and digitalisation aspects of IP disputes, insolvency, tax, regulation, banking, investments and acquisitions and commercial technology, privacy and other data-related matters.
- Global advisers on digital assets – we have one of the largest dedicated crypto and digital assets practices in the UK and Europe, but our reach is not limited to that. We also have a particularly strong cypto and digital assets offering in the financial hubs of Singapore and Hong Kong which play a key part in this fast-growing industry.
- Advice that has been tested – we can apply the law to the market because we have worked with digital assets since the early days of their inception. We combine the broad knowledge and experience of financial regulation and other areas with specific expertise in crypto/digital assets, NFTs, DeFi, e-money and payments, AML, FinTech, Funds, insurance, sanctions and financial crime and with knowledge of the cloud, networks and other technologies underpinning the digital asset market infrastructure. We have a loyal client following of financial institutions, crypto exchanges and custodians, metaverse platforms, defi protocols, investment funds and NFT marketplaces.
Our clients include:
| Crypto exchanges | Crypto custodians |
| Crypto lending and borrowing providers | Banks and regulated financial institutions |
| Crypto traders | Crypto insurers |
| NFT marketplaces | NFT mining platforms |
| Brands licensing NFTs | Token issuers |
| Security tokenisation platforms | Blockchain protocols |
| Start-ups | VC funds |
| Private equity funds | Investment managers |
| Metaverse platforms | DeFi protocols |
| Peer-to-peer lenders | Analytics providers |
| Infrastructure and application developers | Data & document authenticators |
| Wallet providers | Payment services providers |
| Merchants accepting crypto payments | Authorities & regulators |
| Cloud service, and other technology solution providers | |
Further reading
Legal experts for Digital Assets & Crypto
Regulatory News
See all Regulatory NewsFCA: CP26/36: Cryptoasset perimeter guidance
FCA has published a consultation paper CP26/36 on changes to its Perimeter Guidance manual (PERG) to reflect the amendments to the cryptoasset regime introduced by the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Cryptoassets) (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2026. The changes explain FCA’s view of how the amendments in the legislation apply, and how the new exclusions interact with the regulated cryptoasset activities. The amended draft Handbook text is set out in Appendix 1. Responses are required by 18 November 2026. FCA intends to publish final guidance in spring 2027.
FCA: GC26/7: Decentralised Finance
FCA has published a guidance consultation paper on decentralised finance (DeFi) to help firms understand how existing operational resilience and financial crime requirements may apply when they provide financial services using DeFi. The draft non-Handbook guidance is set out in Annex 1. Responses are required by 18 November 2026. FCA intends to publish final guidance in January 2027.
Local market knowledge. Global outlook
We provide future-facing legal advice to help your organisation thrive. Combining local market knowledge and a global perspective, and with lawyers in locations worldwide, your organisation benefits from the expertise it needs, even across borders.
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