Overview
We're Not Blockchain Tourists
With one of the largest Digital Assets, Blockchain & Cryptocurrency practices in the world, Mayer Brown has over 60 lawyers with a wide variety of experience representing a diverse set of clients across the lifespan of their digital asset products and strategies.
Our Clients
We advise the world’s largest financial institutions, payments providers and banks as they develop and execute digital assets and blockchain strategies and products.
We counsel venture capital, private equity and other professional investors as they finance and invest in digital assets business, blockchain ecosystems and cryptocurrencies.
We also advise the world’s most innovative technology businesses, cryptocurrency exchanges, blockchain native businesses, token issuers and developers as they create blockchain transformation in financial markets.
Our Team
Our team includes market-leading digital assets experts and former senior officials in government and regulatory agencies. We have a long history representing pioneers in blockchain and technological innovation and the same team has decades of experience representing the world’s largest banks and financial services companies.
Experience
- Achieved an important and high-profile Commodity Futures Trading Commission registration for Bitnomial Exchange, LLC, a futures exchange approved to offer margined bitcoin futures subject to physical delivery. We worked closely with Bitnomial in regard to business formation, product review, rulebook drafting, application submission and regulatory advocacy as part of a four-year effort.
- Represented PayPal in connection with its participation in (and later withdrawal from) Libra—the planned cryptocurrency being promoted by a consortia of companies involved in technology and finance led by Facebook. We also represented Shopify in connection with its entry into the Libra consortium, and we have advised several other major fintech companies on Libra consortium participation.
- Advised JPMorgan Securities LLC, as lead placement agent, in connection with a $425 million PIPE transaction by Good Works Acquisition Corp., a SPAC, completed in conjunction with a business combination with Cipher Mining Inc., a bitcoin mining firm.
- Represented Sun Hung Kai & Co. Limited, a Hong Kong-listed alternative investment financial services institution, in its Series B investment in Sygnum Bank AG (Sygnum), the world's first digital asset bank. Sun Hung Kai & Co. Limited led the US$90 million Series B funding round for Sygnum, which was oversubscribed. Sygnum, a digital asset technology group with a Swiss banking license and a Singapore asset management license, said it intends to use the proceeds from the latest funding round to accelerate the development of new institutional-grade Web 3.0 offerings and expand into new global markets.
- Represented Apifiny Group Inc., a global cross-exchange digital asset trading network based in New York, in connection with its definitive business combination agreement with Abri SPAC I, Inc., a special purpose acquisition company. The merger (expected to close during the third quarter of 2022) will make Apifiny a publicly traded company on the Nasdaq stock market.
- Represented a major university in negotiations with Coinbase to enable the university to invest portions of its endowment in cryptocurrencies. This includes review and negotiation of crypto custodial services agreements, prime brokerage agreements and over-the-counter trading agreements.