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9 articles
In the first 72 hours after a crypto hack, the legal decisions — the bounty tweet, the freeze request, the forensics engagement, the public statement — determine whether the protocol ends the incident as a victim with live recovery options or as an OFAC violator and civil defendant. A playbook for founders and GCs.
AI agents now trade, pay, and move money on their own, and some of them have already lost it. No AI-liability statute governs the loss. Existing law does, and it keeps asking one question the industry cannot dodge: who controlled the agent?
Choosing the right legal structure for your DeFi protocol determines liability exposure, tax treatment, and regulatory risk. Compare LLC, foundation, and DAO options with real examples (Uniswap, Compound, Lido) and practitioner cost estimates ($5K-$150K+).
Custodial crypto brokers are now reporting digital asset sales on Form 1099-DA, the DeFi front-end rule has been repealed, and 2026 is the first basis-reporting year. Here is who must comply, what to report, and how to avoid penalties.
The CLARITY Act — H.R. 3633, the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025 — passed the House and is now before the Senate. It would give the CFTC authority over digital commodities, including spot markets, and turn on a "mature blockchain" test rather than a named Bitcoin/Ether carve-out. Here is what the actual bill says, and what it does not.
In Samuels v. Lido DAO, a federal court let a general-partnership theory survive a motion to dismiss — holding only that the plaintiff plausibly alleged that active DAO participants could be partners, not that every token holder is automatically liable. Here is what the ruling actually held, who is exposed, and which legal wrappers protect personal assets.
Section 309 protects specified DeFi activities — but the exemption is activity-based, not token-based, and protocols claiming it must survive a seven-control-surface verification their counsel are mostly not building.
AI agents are executing autonomous financial transactions in DeFi right now. A former SEC Honors Program intern analyzes the products liability, securities, commodities, and AML exposure deployers face — with case law, enforcement precedents, and a compliance roadmap.
The 'code is law' ethos collapsed with The DAO hack. Smart contracts face contract formation requirements, oracle problems, and dispute resolution challenges—but hybrid approaches like Ricardian contracts bridge law and technology.
Token classification, regulatory strategy, and transactional support from attorneys who work in this space every day.
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