Amanda Tuminelli (@amandatums) is chief legal officer for the Defi Education Fund, where she leads the organization’s impact litigation and policy efforts. She was previously an attorney at Kobre & Kim and Dechert LLP, and served as a Judicial Law Clerk for the Eastern District of New York. Show highlights: [1:00] DeFi Education Fund's petition to challenge a patent impacting DeFi [12:00] Amanda's introduction to crypto [21:00] Her role as Chief Legal Officer of the DeFi Education...

Michael Frisch is a partner at Croke Fairchild Morgan & Beres where he leads the firm’s Government Litigation and Investigations Practice. Mike previously worked at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), where he brought one of the CFTC’s first enforcement actions involving cryptocurrency — CFTC v. Bitfinex — and was part of the team responsible for the CFTC’s action against Tether in 2021. Show highlights: [1:30] Mike's introduction to crypto [3:00] The history of the CFTC's...

Mark Cianci is Counsel at Ropes & Gray, where he represents hedge funds, private equity firms and their portfolio companies, and clients in other industries in complex commercial litigation, cryptocurrency litigation, qui tam actions, bankruptcy litigation, and government investigation and enforcement matters. Mark also counsels clients in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space on a variety of regulatory considerations, including compliance with securities laws. Show...

Ashish Chandra is the General Counsel of CoinSwitch, India's largest crypto platform pivoting into a multi-asset wealth-tech superapp. With over 22 years of experience in the tech industry, Ashish also led the legal and regulatory affairs of WhatsApp for India. He helped build the e-commerce and fintech/payments business of Facebook, Instagram & WhatsApp in India. Show highlights: [1:30] How crypto regulation has evolved in India [8:00] India's landmark Supreme Court decision [13:00]...

Ross Campbell (@z0r0zzz) is a legal engineer and co-founder of KaliDAO, in addition to being a corporate attorney. Ross is also working on NANI, a protocol mixing AI and crypto and is a founder of LexDAO. Previous episodes with Ross: 1. #5 - Ross Campbell: Legal engineering, Bar Association DAOs, use cases for oracles, and much, much more 2. #30 - Ross Campbell: Legal Engineering and Kali DAO Disclaimer: Jacob Robinson and his guests are not your lawyer. Nothing herein or mentioned on the...

Stephen Palley (@stephendpalley) is a litigation partner and co-chair of Brown Rudnick’s Digital Commerce group. Stephen is a seasoned litigator with over 20 years of extensive courtroom experience litigating and trying complex commercial matters. Stephen has written extensively and been quoted widely on legal issues arising from the use of Blockchain technology, with appearances in both print and television media. For more on Stephen's background, listen to episode 28 of Law of Code: #28 -...

Amira Valliani (@amiravalliani) is Policy Lead at the Solana Foundation. She previously built and sold a creator economy company and served as an advisor at the White House and State Department. Note that this episode was recorded prior to the Ripple Labs decision. Show highlights: [3:00] Policy work at Solana Foundation [7:00] Change in policy [10:30] Challenges and stories of building in Web3 [24:00] Amira's role at the White House [29:00] Building Glow & more. Disclaimer:...

Offering a masterclass on the Accredited Investor rules, this episode distills months of historic research and detailed reviews of the securities laws, as well as a 3+ hour conversation I had with Larry Florio (@larryflorio), into an evergreen episode providing everything one should know regarding the accredited investor standards in the U.S. and across the globe. Disclaimer: Jacob Robinson and his guests are not your lawyer. Nothing herein or mentioned on the Law of Code podcast should be...

Cameron B. Pick is a partner at Marshall Gerstein & Borun LLP who advises clients in the blockchain and metaverse space on intellectual property issues. In this episode, Cameron explains Bitcoin Ordinals, the difference between Ordinals and Ethereum NFTs, and the interplay between IP law and web3. Disclaimer: Jacob Robinson and his guests are not your lawyer. Nothing herein or mentioned on the Law of Code podcast should be construed as legal advice. The material published is intended for...

Samir Patel (@SamirPatelLaw) is an innovation and technology attorney in Holland & Knight's Miami office and head of the firm's Document Automation Program. Samir represents startups and emerging growth companies navigating legal and regulatory issues. Samir also works with artists, art galleries and athletes looking to enhance their products and brands through the creation of NFTs, and advises on their market entrance strategy into the metaverse. In 2021, Samir was appointed to the...

David M. Adlerstein is counsel in the Corporate Department at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. His practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, capital-raising transactions, corporate governance, and other corporate and securities law matters, with a focus on financial institutions and technology transactions. He is a member of the Firm’s Crypto Team and frequently writes and speaks about blockchain technology, cryptocurrencies and smart contracts. Kevin Schwartz is a partner in the...

Tom Lombardi (@tomlombardi) is an adjunct professor of finance at Pepperdine University, California, teaching Decentralized Finance in the Business School. He was formerly a Managing Director at 3iQ (worked on the first regulated crypto fund), Director at Wave Financial (one of the first crypto RIAs), and Head of Growth for the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance. Show highlights: [8:00] Importance of institutional investments in digital assets [16:00] Bitcoin and institutional...

Nicky Gomez (@XRegNicky) is the Senior Partner at XReg Consulting. A former regulator with 15+ years of experience in the crypto and financial services industries, Nicky provides strategic regulatory advice and has successfully secured licenses and authorizations for clients in Europe, Gibraltar, the Caribbean and Asia. As the co-chair of the Global Digital Finance AML working group, he helps shape global cryptoasset regulatory standards that mitigate risk and encourage innovation. Aaron...

The goal of this podcast is to help DAOs and their members understand the potential legal wrappers which arise from bespoke legislation. This is the second episode of the DAO Research Monthly series, created by Jacob Robinson, Kyle Smith and Kyler Wandler. This episode reviews the legal wrappers created for DAOs. What do we mean when we say legal wrapper? What benefits do they offer DAOs and their members? What are the risks? We answer these questions and much more. [4:30] Evolution of...

This podcast answers the "why" behind the blockchain space. It is a compilation of answers given from previous guests of Law of Code who explain why they believe in this technology, why they work in this space and what gets them excited about the future. This podcast was largely inspired by Polygon's Value Prop, a crowd-sourced and entirely open database, created to showcase the diverse and unique use cases for blockchain technology – across all networks – which are making an impact...

In this episode of Law of Code, partners at McCarthy Tetrault's Fintech practice Ana Badour and Lori Stein, along with DLx Law's Lewis Cohen, Angela Angelovska-Wilson and Greg Strong discuss the differences in crypto regulation between Canada and the US, from securities rules to banking and AML policies. Show highlights: [3:00] Binance and Coinbase SEC charges [11:00] Digital assets and investment contracts [21:00] Differences in the Canadian approach to secondary sales [32:00] Banking...

Collins Belton (@collins_belton) is the founder and Managing Partner of Brookwood P.C., a boutique transactional practice focused on serving founders, startups and emerging technology companies working on frontier technology, particularly in the digital asset space. Collins was previously Counsel at Atrium and an Associate at Wilson Sonsini. Show highlights: [1:40] Binance charges from SEC [10:45] Is BUSD a security? [23:00] Binance complaint alleging tokens are securities [30:00]...

Craig Salm (@CraigSalm) is the Chief Legal Officer at Grayscale Investments, the world's largest digital currency asset manager, where he oversees the daily legal and regulatory operations of the business and its products. Prior to joining Grayscale, Craig was a corporate associate at Paul Weiss.  This episode builds on a previous episode covering everything you need to know about the Grayscale lawsuit against the SEC. Show highlights: [2:00] Genesis block [13:00] Learnings from Paul...

Freeman Lewin (@Freeman_Lewin) is an Attorney at DLx Law, where he advises clients in all matters related to blockchain, smart contracts, and tokenization. In late 2022, the DLx Law team published a comprehensive analysis of every "investment contract" decision by U.S. appellate courts since 1946: The Ineluctable Modality of Securities Law: Why Fungible Crypto Assets are Not Securities. Their publication has since been cited in Coinbase's response to the an SEC Wells Notice, the Dissent of...

Caitlin Long (@CaitlinLong_) is a 22-year Wall Street veteran active in bitcoin since 2012, and whose passion is a fair and stable financial system. She is also the founder and CEO of Custodia Bank, a chartered US bank specializing in digital assets. Show highlights: [1:40] Operation Chokepoint 2.0? [4:40] Importance of Access to the Federal Reserve System [9:25] Origins of Operation Chokepoint [17:20] Custodia Bank [24:00] Checks & Balances [29:23] What's Next for Custodia...

This conversation with two prominent members of the Blockchain Association covers de-banking in crypto, hostility from regulators and the state of crypto in America. Jake Chervinsky (@jchervinsky) is the Chief Policy Officer at Blockchain Association, the largest advocacy group for the crypto industry in Washington DC. Jake is also one of Variant Fund’s strategic advisors and a board member at the DeFi Education Fund. Marisa Tashman Coppel (@mtcoppel) is Policy Counsel at the Blockchain...

Eric Richmond (@ericrichy) is the Chief Operating Officer at Coinsquare and a Co-Founder and Director at Tetra Trust Company. In this episode, we discuss consolidation in the Canadian crypto space (Coinsquare, WonderFi and CoinSmart), Coinsquare's IIROC Membership, Tetra Trust custody solution & much more. [1:33] Consolidating three crypto asset exchanges [9:30] IIROC membership [18:00] Tetra Trust & cold storage [27:00] Bear markets [30:00] Bailment & much...

Carla L. Reyes (@Prof_CarlaReyes) is an Assistant Professor of Law at SMU Dedman School of Law. Professor Reyes is a nationally recognized leader on issues raised by the intersection of business law and technology. Professor Reyes was appointed the Chair of the Texas Work Group on Blockchain Matters in September 2021. The work group is charged with considering policy priorities related to blockchain technology in Texas. Professor Reyes was also named an American Bar Foundation Fellow in...

The Proof of Stake Alliance (POSA) is an action-oriented, nonprofit industry alliance advocating for forward-thinking public policies that foster innovation in rapidly growing, sustainable, multi-billion dollar proof-of-stake ecosystems. POSA brings together industry leaders and legal experts to fight for fair regulation that allows the industry to flourish. Guests include: Alison Mangiero (@AMangiero) is the Executive Director of the Proof of Stake Alliance.  Alexander Grieve...

Chris Duncan (@chrisrossduncan) is counsel in Carey Olsen’s Cayman Islands office. Chris leads their Fintech and Crypto group across both the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands, working with some of the largest projects in the crypto space on structuring and regulatory matters (including licensing applications and regulatory investigations).  He has been recognized in the Chambers and Partners Fintech guide as a leading individual. In addition, Chris advises high net worth and...