Meet Matt
I am a specialist litigator for complex and multi-jurisdictional disputes with blockchain technology and digital assets at their core. My practice includes crypto asset recovery for individuals and businesses following a hack, scam or misappropriation. I have extensive experience in obtaining urgent bespoke injunctions, worldwide freezers and specific disclosure orders.
I am currently chair of techUK’s Digital Asset Working Group, designed to (i) consider opportunities for market growth (ii) steer industry players by giving a collective voice to stakeholders large and small and (iii) help educate how both this asset class and technology can shape financial services and beyond.
My practice also includes commercial litigation, disputes concerning technology and intellectual property matters, including trade mark and copyright infringement over digital, artistic and technology focused works.
As founder and host of the In Early Podcast, I speak with those at the forefront of the blockchain and technology sectors. Episodes can be found via YouTube, Apple, and Spotify.
Experience highlights
- AA v Persons Unknown [2019] EWHC 3556 (Comm) (Comm) (13 December 2019) where, following a ransomware attack, an insurer paid Bitcoin in return for a Canadian hospital’s access to their customers’ data. This case confirmed that Bitcoin and crypto assets broadly were ‘property’ at common law and helped shape much of the law surrounding the status and strategies in freezing and recovering crypto assets around the world. It is highly cited in academic papers and judgments globally.
- Acting for a crypto currency brokerage whereby business functionality was blocked by their service and liquid provider following Court Orders obtained by the Secret Service and which resulted in the return of c.$1m of Tether.
- Obtaining reliefs against North Korean hackers following an exploit of an established crypto address provider and serving documents via Ether NFTs.
- Crypto Open Patent Alliance v Craig Steven Wright [2024] EWHC 1198 (Ch) (20 May 2024), joint proceedings concerning copyright and database claims, as to the identity of the Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto and whether he can exercise intellectual property rights over “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”.
- Tulip Trading Limited (A Seychelles Company) v Bitcoin Association For BSV & Ors: Devising a new strategy for the recovery of (i) private keys, preventing access to billions of pounds worth of Bitcoin, and (ii) other crypto assets worth millions as part of a wider hack.
- Securing private Court Orders against and working with major cryptocurrency exchanges to freeze funds and comply with enforcement provisions following sophisticated investment platform and romance scams.
Publications
NFT Legal and Regulatory Compliance: Connoisseurship and Critique
Decentralised Autonomous Organisations: The Future of Corporate Governance or an Illusion
Bitcoin Magazine: Now That Bitcoin Is Considered Property In The UK, Reclaiming Ransomed Assets Sent To Exchanges Is Much Easier
Financial Times Advisor: We need to treat crypto fraud like any other crime' – How to Recover Lost Crypto
