Acquisitions, equity financings and other deals among digital assets businesses, crypto asset managers and blockchain ecosystems are being pursued by global financial institutions, fintech companies and the world’s largest institutional investors, among many others.

No matter who the buyer is—and no matter the size of the investment—understanding the assets and revenue streams of a target digital assets business is critical to capturing and realizing value in any equity investment or M&A deal.

In part 1 of our series on deals in the digital assets sector, our team examines two critical areas that should be a focus in any deal – cybersecurity and intellectual property.

Asset managers who invest in crypto assets are expanding their footprint as managers of capital for investors. In doing so, crypto asset managers may seek to monetize a part of their revenue streams through partnerships with financial institutions and investors. These partnerships can take numerous different forms – among them, acquisitions, minority investments and revenue sharing agreements. Regardless of form, a major focus of those discussions will be on the valuation of the crypto asset management business itself.

In Part 1 of our series on deals in crypto asset management, our team takes a look at challenges in determining valuations in these deals and ways to manage them.

Investing in or acquiring distressed assets can be a lucrative investment strategy for those with a healthy risk appetite and a roadmap for sourcing and evaluating quality assets. For those looking to treasure-hunt for distressed or undervalued crypto assets or crypto-adjacent businesses, in this piece we describe three contexts in which these investments can be made: a “down round” of financing by a business, a secondary sale of an investment position, and asset sales in distressed situations either prior to or as part of a bankruptcy proceeding. For each of these contexts, we will highlight procedures and potential pitfalls that can make or break the success of an investment.

Token holders for three different decentralized protocols have recently proposed a first-of-its-kind merger of tokens that would create an “Artificial Superintelligence Alliance” (“Alliance”) with a single token and a new, independent AI research and development foundation. At the same time, the Alliance will be comprised of the members of three existing blockchain foundations, which will continue as separate and independent organizations.

In this article, we examine the background for the Alliance and its structure and concepts by drawing comparisons with traditional corporate joint ventures (“JVs”). We also examine the practical challenges of operating a decentralized JV and highlight a few key challenges and questions that will need to be addressed in the Alliance’s implementation and governance.

In this piece, members of Mayer Brown’s Digital Assets Initiative break down a digital-native form of business—the Decentralized Autonomous Organization, or DAO—and examine one of the first DAO mergers. We also take a look ahead at ways that DAOs may become increasingly relevant to established technology and financial services businesses.

View previous editions and additional content in our Digital Assets Download Resource Center.