Digital assets.
The firm advises holders, issuers, and intermediaries of digital assets — within and across the major regulatory frameworks now applicable: MiCA in the European Union, the FINMA DLT framework in Switzerland, the BitLicense and federal regulation in the United States, and the equivalent regimes in the firm's other working jurisdictions. Engagements typically combine the legal characterisation of the asset, the regulatory analysis of the activity around it, and the tax and structuring questions that follow.
The firm does not act as token issuer, custodian, or exchange operator. It represents holders and counterparties to those entities, including in disputes where the conduct of the operator is contested.
Six recurring workstreams.
Legal characterisation and asset classification
Analysis of digital assets under the applicable regulatory regimes — security, utility, payment, asset-referenced, e-money — and the consequences for the holder and the operator across the firm's working jurisdictions.
Holding architecture and custody
Structuring of the holding vehicle for digital assets, selection of custody arrangements (regulated custodian, multi-signature arrangement, self-custody), and management of the inheritance and access-recovery questions that custody raises.
Tax treatment
Analysis of acquisition, holding, and disposal taxation, the treatment of staking, lending, and protocol rewards, and the wealth-tax exposure that holding digital assets creates in jurisdictions that have not yet finalised their position.
Regulatory licensing and market access
Advice on licensing requirements for entities operating in the digital-asset space, including MiCA authorisation, DLT licensing in Switzerland, and the equivalent procedures in jurisdictions where the firm has standing.
Dispute resolution
Representation in disputes involving digital assets — exchange failures, custody losses, smart-contract execution failures, and contested transactions — with the procedural particularities that pseudonymous counterparties and on-chain evidence introduce.
Compliance and reporting
Compliance with the disclosure and reporting obligations now applicable to digital-asset holders, including DAC8 in the European Union, the proposed crypto-asset reporting in the United States, and the existing AML/CTF obligations that apply to operators.
A senior partner leads each engagement.
Digital-asset engagements are led directly at partner level, with the regulatory and tax dimensions integrated rather than treated as separate workstreams. The firm maintains the working knowledge of the technology that complex matters require — the structure of distributed ledgers, the mechanics of smart contracts, the operational risks of exchanges and custodians — but it does not provide technical advice on protocol design or operational security. Where a matter requires forensic analysis of on-chain transactions, the firm coordinates with specialised forensic counsel and integrates their analysis into the overall position.