Law of Code

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 construed as legal advice. The material published is intended for informational, educational, and entertainment purposes only. Please seek the advice of counsel, and do not apply any of the generalized material to your individual facts or circumstances without speaking to an attorney.

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 informational, educational, and entertainment purposes only. Please seek the advice of counsel, and do not apply any of the generalized material to your individual facts or circumstances without speaking to an attorney.

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 first-ever Miami-Dade County Cryptocurrency Task Force. 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 informational, educational, and entertainment purposes only. Please seek the advice of counsel, and do not apply any of the generalized material to your individual facts or circumstances without speaking to an attorney.

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 Litigation Department of Wachtell Lipton and serves on the Executive Committee of the New York City Bar Association, where he was previously Chair of the Judiciary Committee, and is also a Visiting Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School. Mr. Schwartz’s practice includes corporate, commercial, and securities litigation at both the trial and appellate levels, as well as a variety of regulatory and corporate governance matters that include leading the firm’s specialized Crypto Team to address rapidly changing issues generated by the crypto asset industry.  Show highlights: [3:00] David and Kevin's introduction to crypto [14:00] Evolution of the legal side of digital assets [24:30] The merits of decentralization [33:00] Tornado Cash [41:00] Smart contracts [47:00] NFTs & much more. 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 informational, educational, and entertainment purposes only. Please seek the advice of counsel, and do not apply any of the generalized material to your individual facts or circumstances without speaking to an attorney.

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 investors [24:00] Bitcoin Spot ETF [39:00] SEC proposed custody rule [42:00] SEC actions pre-Coinbase and Binance charges [59:00] Bitcoin is Venice? [68:00] Regulation and technology & much more. 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 informational, educational, and entertainment purposes only. Please seek the advice of counsel, and do not apply any of the generalized material to your individual facts or circumstances without speaking to an attorney.

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 Unterman is the managing director of XReg Consulting (Cayman) SEZC. Aaron previously worked in the derivatives branch of Canada’s largest market regulator, the Ontario Securities Commission, and recently led the development of CIMA’s regulatory framework for virtual asset service providers, including developing rules and guidance for custodians, trading platforms, issuances and the sandbox regime. Show highlights: [3:00] Introduction to crypto while working as regulators [12:00] XReg's international approach to consulting [15:00] Classifying regulatory approaches to crypto in different jurisdictions [21:00] Jurisdictions introducing comprehensive crypto rules [29:00] Jurisdictions where crypto assets are illegal [34:00] Global regulatory harmonization (IOSCO) [47:00] DeFi regulation & much more. 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 informational, educational, and entertainment purposes only. Please seek the advice of counsel, and do not apply any of the generalized material to your individual facts or circumstances without speaking to an attorney.

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 the modern company [8:15] How DAOs build on the company [12:00] Legal wrappers as a bridge [20:00] Wyoming DAO law [25:00] UNA [29:00] Tennessee DAO law [31:00] DAOs in Texas [33:40] DAOs in Utah [43:00] Vermont blockchain-based LLC [53:16] Catawba Economic Zone [54:00] DAOs outside the US & much more. Thank you to our sponsors, the DAO Research Collective, Lobby 3 and Tally DAO, for supporting this educational initiative - and thank you to Kyler Wandler for his incredible research. 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 informational, educational, and entertainment purposes only. Please seek the advice of counsel, and do not apply any of the generalized material to your individual facts or circumstances without speaking to an attorney.

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 throughout the world. The Value Prop highlights 39 separate use cases for blockchain technology, with a total of 304 applications. 100 episodes, thank you.

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 and AML history, rules and outlook [48:00] Access to banking in US and Canada [50:00] Q&A & much more. 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 informational, educational, and entertainment purposes only. Please seek the advice of counsel, and do not apply any of the generalized material to your individual facts or circumstances without speaking to an attorney.

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] Binance asset freeze [36:45] Coinbase charges from SEC [44:00] Coinbase's S1 registration & staking [48:40] Agency overreach [56:00] Show cause orders in multiple states [60:00] What the future holds 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 informational, educational, and entertainment purposes only. Please seek the advice of counsel, and do not apply any of the generalized material to your individual facts or circumstances without speaking to an attorney.