Jason P. Gottlieb

White collar and regulatory enforcement defense

• SEC
  • Counsel for dozens of Web3 development companies and Foundations in non-public SEC investigations, including several through a Wells process, which concluded with no enforcement action 
  • Counsel for the “Debt Box” defendants in a case brought by the SEC in federal district court, which ended after the SEC was held in contempt and voluntarily dismissed its case
  • Counsel for Genesis Global Capital, LLC in SEC enforcement action in federal district court relating to lending and borrowing activity 
  • Counsel for Jonathan Mann and Brian L. Frye in a preemptive suit against the SEC seeking a declaratory judgment that their proposed NFT projects do not violate federal securities law
  • Counsel for a non-custodial wallet application developer in SEC Wells process
  • Counsel for company offering AI-based financial and market research software in a SEC investigation 
  • Counsel for a California cryptocurrency hedge fund in an SEC investigation (obtained letter of non-enforcement)
  • Counsel for several cryptocurrency issuers (in the United States and abroad) in various SEC investigations regarding token issuance
  • Counsel for several individual software developers in connection with the SEC’s “Eth 2.0” investigation
  • Counsel for the Canadian developers of Plexcoin in an SEC litigation in federal district court, the first case brought by the SEC’s Cyber Unit
• CFTC
  • Appellate counsel in Seventh Circuit appeal concerning the issue of whether certain digital assets are commodities under the Commodity Exchange Act 
  • Counsel for a software company and its developers in a landmark investigation and settlement with the CFTC
  • Counsel for a software company in a CFTC investigation relating to leverage-bearing tokens (obtained letter of non-enforcement)
  • Counsel for an individual associated with a DeFi trading platform (obtained letter of non-enforcement)
  • Counsel for a Layer-1 blockchain development company in connection with a CFTC investigation
• DOJ
  • Counsel for former executive of a major collapsed cryptocurrency exchange in a DOJ investigation and subsequent trial
  • Counsel for former executive of a cryptocurrency exchange in a DOJ investigation into AML issues
  • Counsel for individual cryptocurrency trader in an asset seizure and market manipulation investigation by the DOJ
  • Counsel for several individuals related to a DeFi platform manipulation attack
  • Counsel for multiple cryptocurrency companies in DOJ investigations of other parties’ alleged criminal activity
  • Counsel for founders of a DeFi trading platform that was manipulated, in connection with the criminal action filed against the alleged manipulator
• New York Attorney General's Office
  • Counsel for digital payments company in a New York State Attorney General investigation
  • Counsel for a decentralized exchange’s foundation in a New York State Martin Act investigation
  • Counsel for a crypto-focused investment fund in New York State Martin Act and SEC investigations
  • Counsel for several Web3 and blockchain companies in New York State Martin Act investigations
• Other state regulators
  • Counsel for DeFi software developers in investigations by Alabama, Arkansas, California, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Texas, Washington State and Washington D.C. 
  • Counsel for a cryptocurrency lender in a Texas investigation into money transmission issues
  • Counsel for a crypto shopping app in a Washington State investigation into money transmission issues

Class action litigation

• Counsel for Compound Labs and Dragonfly Digital Management in a putative class action in the Eastern District of New York alleging that the PoolTogether protocol constituted an unlicensed lottery in violation of New York law (case dismissed)
• Counsel for Uniswap Foundation in a putative class action in the Southern District of New York alleging securities law violations in connection with alleged tokens traded on the Uniswap Protocol (case dismissed, dismissal upheld on appeal) 
• Counsel for bZeroX and its founders in a class action alleging negligence after a hack 
• Counsel for Robert Leshner, Geoffrey Hayes, and Gauntlet Networks, Inc. in a putative class action in the Northern District of California alleging unregistered sales of the COMP token as a security
• Counsel for Dragonfly Digital Management and Robot Ventures in a putative class action in the Northern District of California alleging unregistered sales of the LDO token as a security
• Counsel for Eden Gallery and other individuals in a putative class action in the Southern District of New York alleging breach of contract and breach of consumer protection statute in connection with NFT collection 
• Counsel for Wintermute Trading in a class action pertaining to Celsius Networks
• Counsel for Sino Global Management and other entities in a putative class action in the Southern District of Florida pertaining to the FTX collapse
• Counsel for Galaxy Digital Capital Management, L.P. in a putative class action in the Northern District of California pertaining to a Galaxy portfolio company’s online video game business

Commercial litigation

• Counsel for Phantom Technologies, Inc. in litigation in the Southern District of Florida against an individual who claimed that SOL tokens were stolen by a third party from his self-custodial wallet 
• Counsel for the ICON Foundation in litigation in the Northern District of California with an individual who exploited a bug to extract value from the protocol
• Counsel for Exodus Movement, Inc. in Electronic Fund Transfer Act litigation in the Eastern District of New York against an individual that certain tokens were stolen by a third party from his self-custodial wallet
• Counsel for GGC International Limited in litigation in the Southern District of New York against counterparty for counterparty’s failure to settle digital asset derivative trades
• Counsel for Galaxy Digital in a JAMS arbitration with a counterparty over a failure to settle trades and the subsequent confirmation proceedings 
• Counsel for Max Schneider in litigation in the District of Puerto Rico regarding token buyback dispute
• Counsel for Compound Labs in a federal district court case alleging patent infringement
• Counsel for Delv in a federal district court case alleging trademark infringement
• Counsel for a digital asset mining consultant in litigation concerning cryptocurrency mining venture and the ownership of disputed mining rigs
• Counsel for a foreign cryptocurrency exchange in a federal district court action relating to a customer claim
• Counsel for a Swiss blockchain company in litigation related to its token issuance 
• Counsel for a cryptocurrency investment fund in an employment dispute
• Counsel for multiple founders of digital asset projects in disputes with co-founders over ownership interests 
• Counsel for a Web3 bridge company and founders in litigation related to hack

Bankruptcy-related litigation work

• Counsel for Patrick Gruhn, Robin Matzke and Lorem Ipsum UG in adversary proceeding in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware brought by the FTX estate in connection with sale of company to FTX
• Counsel for Mohammad Nawaaz Meerun in adversary proceeding in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware brought by the FTX estate in connection with margin trading on FTX exchange
• Counsel for Compound Labs, Inc., Robert Leshner and Geoffrey Hayes in adversary proceeding in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York brought by the Celsius estate related to a protocol price oracle
• Counsel for Into the Block in adversary proceeding in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York brought by Celsius estate regarding disassembly of Celsius’s position within liquidity pool 

Amicus brief advocacy

• Counsel for Crypto Council for Innovation in the U.S. Supreme Court concerning the application to the digital assets industry of the extraterritoriality doctrine set forth in the Supreme Court’s landmark Morrison v. Nat’l Australia Bank Ltd., in support of a petition for a writ of certiorari
• Counsel for Lejilex in the Third Circuit supporting Coinbase’s petition for SEC rulemaking
• Counsel for Crypto Council for Innovation and Blockchain Association in the Western District of Texas arguing that airdrops are not securities, in support of Beba LLC and DeFi Education Fund in their lawsuit against the SEC and Gary Gensler
• Counsel for Paradigm Operations LP in the Northern District of Texas arguing that the SEC’s new “Dealer Rule” would improperly extend to the digital assets industry, in support of the Crypto Freedom Alliance of Texas and Blockchain Association’s lawsuit against the SEC and Gary Gensler
• Counsel for Blockchain Association and DeFi Education Fund in the Western District of Texas regarding the SEC’s Consolidated Audit Trail, in support of Erik Davidson, John Restivo and National Center for Public Policy Research’s lawsuit against the SEC, Gary Gensler and Consolidated Audit Trial, LLC
• Counsel for Blockchain Association in the Southern District of New York, in the SEC’s enforcement action against Ripple
• Counsel for Blockchain Association in the Western District of Washington, in the SEC’s insider trading enforcement action against Ishan Wahi, Nikhil Wahi and Sameer Ramani
• Counsel for Paradigm Operations LP in the Supreme Court for the State of New York, in the NYAG’s enforcement action against KuCoin, arguing that ETH should not be treated as a security

Regulatory advisory work

• Counsel for myriad DeFi protocols, exchanges, projects, DAOs, institutional traders, non-custodial wallet application companies, token issuers and institutional crypto liquidity providers, on SEC, CFTC, FinCEN and state regulations
• Counsel for Ember Fund on regulatory aspects of a major deal partnership
• Counsel for the Washington Nationals baseball team on regulatory aspects of a sponsorship deal involving a cryptocurrency platform
• Counsel for several major DeFi protocol “grants programs” on structuring and regulatory issues
• Counsel for several major foundation companies supporting DeFi communities on structuring and regulatory issues
• Counsel for a leading social media company on the treatment of ERC-20 tokens within their platform
• Counsel for various investors on regulatory diligence on cryptocurrency and blockchain aspects of significant investments
• Counsel for several foreign cryptocurrency exchanges on United States regulatory matters
• Counsel for a gaming company on the regulatory risks associated with its distribution of native gaming token
• Counsel for investment firms on SEC regulations related to commercial lending and borrowing activity 

Wall Street Blockchain Alliance
New York County Lawyers’ Association (Securities and Exchanges Committee; Futures and Derivatives Committee)
Association of the Bar of New York City (Securities Litigation Committee)
Federal Bar Council

Ranked in Chambers FinTech Guide 2024 (USA), Crypto-Asset Disputes, Band 1 and FinTech Legal: Blockchain & Cryptocurrencies, Band 3 

The National Law Journal, “Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, and FinTech Trailblazers,” 2018