Since 2013, Joe has been representing companies and individuals in all aspects of crypto and blockchain-related legal matters, including defending government investigations, pursuing cutting-edge crypto litigation, obtaining money transmitter and other state licenses, and advising on initial coin offerings. With a focus on crypto regulatory matters, Joe advises the industry’s biggest players on their most important regulatory and licensing matters. His work includes issuing stablecoins, obtaining money transmitter licenses nationwide, obtaining trust charters, and launching new cryptocurrencies and products.

Pioneering first-of-its-kind crypto litigation, Joe has successfully handled matters involving crypto tracing, decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) litigation, and actions against fictitious entities and anonymous founders. His in-court successes include a series of wins in connection with the crypto industry’s largest bankruptcy cases in the United States and defending some of the industry’s largest participants. Joe has qualified crypto tracing experts in federal court and obtained immediate recovery of stolen crypto.

Joe has led the most impactful litigation and investigations for crypto creditor committees and post-bankruptcy confirmation entities in the industry. These representations include Cred, Inc., Voyager Digital, Prime Trust, Genesis Global Capital LLC, Terraform Labs, and Rhodium. Joe defends and brings affirmative litigation in connection with crypto bankruptcy cases, including regularly filing and defending cases worth hundreds of millions of dollars of fiat and crypto.

Additionally, Joe has defended crypto exchanges and other market participants in federal and state investigations. He regularly and successfully defends against these crypto regulatory investigations without penalties, fines, enforcement actions, or media attention of any kind.

Joe has also worked with state and federal regulatory bodies across the United States to advise and provide input on crypto regulation. In 2024, the Wyoming Select Committee on Blockchain, Financial Technology, and Digital Innovation Technology tapped Joe and his team to draft new legislation to protect crypto customers in the event of a bankruptcy filing.  The legislation crafted by Joe and his team specifically protects crypto customers in bankruptcy, even those whose assets are staked, held in stablecoin, or with sub-custodians.

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• Represented the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in the chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings of Cred Inc., a global crypto financial services platform, and the first bankruptcy case of its kind. Subsequently represented the Cred Inc. Liquidation Trust and prosecuted all related litigation
• Recovered nearly $6 million in stolen bitcoin and other crypto for an Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors representing customers of Cred, a crypto trading platform, following its chapter 11 bankruptcy and thefts made by one of its executives. In a first-of-its-kind ruling, the court issued an order requiring the defendant to get on Zoom and return the stolen crypto “within the next 30 minutes”
• Represented the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in the chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings of Terraform Labs Pte. Ltd., the first bankruptcy case concerning a notoriously depegged stablecoin, Terra (UST), and its related cryptocurrency, LUNA
• Representing the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in the chapter 11 cases of Rhodium Encore, an industrial bitcoin mining company with more than 53,000 deployed miners
• Lead counsel to Genesis Block, defending fraudulent transfer and other causes of action brought by the FTX estate
• Lead counsel to a defendant in a case brought by the FTX estate, the first fraudulent transfer and turnover case concerning a decentralized liquidity pool
• Lead counsel to an NFT fund in a case filed by Celsius for the return of CryptoPunk NFTs
• Lead litigation counsel for the ad hoc group of crypto creditors in the Genesis Global Capital LLC chapter 11 cases
• Defending a prominent auction house in a class action concerning the bored ape yacht club (BAYC) NFTs
• Serving as lead counsel in federal and state case against the OlympusDAO, in which the founders were personally found and served in the United States
• Defeated a case brought against a crypto over-the-counter (OTC) desk, alleging that it facilitated crypto trades in connection with a pig butchering scheme. The court held “the documents support the position that [the crypto OTC desk] operate[s] a legitimate business and had implemented anti-money laundering policies and practices during all relevant times.”
• Trained federal law enforcement in crypto tracing

Crypto Regulatory and Licensing Advice  

• Obtained money transmitter licenses, “no action” determinations, and trust charters for crypto and blockchain companies across the United States
• Special crypto regulatory counsel on Ripple’s acquisition of Standard Custody & Trust, which was the first time a crypto company acquired a New York Department of Financial Services-regulated limited purpose trust company authorized to conduct “virtual currency business activity” in New York. Obtained approval of the acquisition from the New York Department of Financial Services. Providing ongoing legal advice concerning the issuance of the stablecoin Ripple USD (RLUSD)
• Served as lead regulatory counsel to Anzens, Inc. on the issuance of the Cardano stablecoin USDA
• Served as lead regulatory counsel to Zeebu on its launch of ZBU, the first cryptocurrency designed to facilitate international telecom credit payments. ZBU amassed a $1.6 billion market cap in its first 12 months
• Regulatory counsel to BitcoinIRA, the world’s first provider of cryptocurrency investment retirement accounts
• Providing ongoing regulatory advice and legal support to one of the world’s largest centralized crypto exchanges
• Providing ongoing regulatory advice and legal support to a US and global cryptocurrency exchange with a related blockchain analytics platform, which is one of the most prominent in the world
• Engaged by the Wyoming Select Committee on Blockchain, Financial Tech and Digital Innovation Technology to draft legislation focused on protecting crypto customers in bankruptcy, including stablecoin reserves, staked crypto, assets with sub-custodians, and crypto traded on third-party exchanges. The legislation passed on March 15, 2024
• Obtained landmark “no-action” relief from the Wyoming Division of Banking concerning digital asset custody; also obtained a first-ever ruling from Wyoming that a crypto trust company is a “Qualified Custodian” under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940
• Representing several prominent cryptocurrency exchanges and other companies in rolling out NFT marketplaces
• Representing major cryptocurrency exchanges in connection with federal regulatory and criminal investigations initiated by the US Department of Justice, Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control, and state banking and securities regulators

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