There has been recent turmoil in the crypto market, including a host of Chapter 11 crypto filings.  In the event that you or your clients need legal support during these challenging times in the industry, we are well-positioned to assist.  We have extensive experience providing crypto and fintech clients with a broad range of legal services, including:
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• distressed situations, including crypto bankruptcy cases such as Voyager’s Chapter 11 and out-of-court restructurings and transactions involving crypto companies;
• civil litigation and arbitration, including representing crypto companies and exchanges with respect to claims for fraud, breach of contract, and misrepresentation; customer disputes; and class actions in federal and state courts throughout the United States;
• regulatory enforcement defense, including defending crypto companies in inquiries, investigations, and litigation brought by the SEC, CFTC, and state regulators with respect to unregistered offerings, fraudulent crypto schemes, and inadequate disclosures; and
• regulatory and compliance advice, including token analysis; product and business-line risk assessment and mitigation; money transmission licensing; evaluating and drafting KYC/AML/SARs policies and procedures; federal and state examinations; and evaluating and drafting cybersecurity policies and procedures and data privacy and protection disclosures.

​In this article, we present a summary of the options available to companies in financial distress, including a discussion of the advantages of, and treatment of small businesses under, Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code.

​Most bankruptcy attorneys will confess that they delight in telling the non-bankruptcy attorney for the other side that a bankruptcy case has been filed and that a contractual termination provision or other right governed by state law is suddenly superseded and rendered superfluous by the Bankruptcy Code, 11 U.S.C. § 101 et seq., which is federal law. In other words, my law trumps your law.
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When bankruptcy law and the policy considerations underlying it intersect (or collide) with intellectual property law, which is also primarily federal law and is based on its own compelling (and often competing) set of policy considerations, the analysis becomes much more complex. This article explores the attempts by Congress and the courts to resolve the issues that arise when intellectual property license agreements become part of a bankruptcy estate and describes the protections that may be available to, and the pitfalls that should be avoided by, licensors and licensees.

The bankruptcy court provides a forum for the prosecution of a variety of lawsuits. The most common complaints filed by or on behalf of a bankruptcy estate are for the avoidance and recovery of preferential transfers and fraudulent conveyances (under both the Bankruptcy Code and state law).

​Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code is federal statutory law. If a financially distressed company is seeking to continue to operate and emerge from bankruptcy as a new and improved company, while maintaining the option of selling off its assets in an orderly fashion, it would file Chapter 11. If it has no choice but to liquidate it may file Chapter 7, in which case a trustee is appointed to sell off the assets.