Gilbert + Tobin

G+T’s Fintech + Web3 practice supports businesses that are participating in, innovating or disrupting the way in which payments, digital marketplaces and platforms, crypto assets, digital products and infrastructure are delivered, accessed and consumed. Our clients include both new and incumbent organisations focused on services that are more efficient and responsive to consumer needs and regulatory requirements.

Our team has advised some of the most successful and ground-breaking fintech, payments, platform and crypto businesses operating in Australia and globally. Our experience is across the sector and includes digital wallets, stored value and payments providers, payment schemes and infrastructure operators, centralised and decentralised platforms and projects (including DeFi and DAO projects), traditional and emerging product distributors, digital currencies and exchanges, neobanks, fractionalised and tokenised assets (including NFTs), marketplace and alternative lending and BNPL.

From traditional financial service providers, fund and asset managers to new product providers and exchanges, our depth of expertise and technical knowledge means we can advise clients on each step along the journey. Our experience traverses the lifespan of business - from workshopping very early stage concepts to build scalable and marketable solutions, to advising founder-held and start-up businesses through the process of obtaining VC or PE money, to working with established businesses looking to pivot or deliver product enhancements and new service offerings.

Main Areas of Practice

• Digital wallet, stored value and payment providers: advising clients offering digital wallet solutions that are incidental to the primary purpose of clients’ business as well as digital wallet solutions that are a turnkey service for merchants and consumers. We support clients offering methods of creating digital representations of value for transactional purposes and gateways that bridge the gap between traditional payments systems and digital currencies.
• Digital currency exchanges and trading platforms: advising on the establishment and launch of digital currency exchange and trading platforms and advising both new and incumbent organisations on the establishment and offering of digital networks and ecosystems across a range of sectors and industries from privacy and data to agriculture. We have assisted our clients in creating ‘first of its kind’ financial product issues on blockchain based protocols as alternate payment and investment mechanisms.
• DAOs, digital assets, funds and custody: advising on establishment, structuring, scaling and decentralisation of platforms and vehicles offering customers rights to participate (eg, in governance, development, asset or content creation) and digitised interests with exposure to synthetic and real world assets. We support clients in understanding capital formation, financial services and fund regulation in the context of digital assets and the specific challenges involved with ownership, custody and storage of digital assets.
• Digital markets, platforms and infrastructure: advising on decentralised, peer-to-peer and disintermediated marketplaces and platforms that offer customers alternative and convenient ways to interact with others and access products and services. We work with clients dealing with the challenges that come with providing traditional and innovative regulated products and services to a unique customer base, in a responsible and compliant way. This includes advising clients that use technology to change the financial services infrastructure itself. Our role as law experts is to work with these clients to develop solutions that balance opportunities and risks.

The firm's experience includes advising:

• Coinbase Global Inc on the provision of prime brokerage and crypto asset custody solutions to Australian listed and unlisted crypto funds and ETFs; and on the establishment of Coinbase’s Australian business addressing the provision of the suite of Coinbase products to Australian customers
• CitiBank and Westpac in relation to aspects of their involvement in the New Payments Platform
• PayPal, Tesla, Prosegur, Employment Hero, Etsy, Intuit, MYOB, BPAY (including in relation to NPP and Osko), Tencent, Afterpay, Blueshyft, Daimler, Moneytech, Synthetix, Westpac, CBA, and Relaypay in relation to payment platforms and solutions
• BPAY and Australian Payments Plus on: various matters, including drafting its “Okso” real-time payments services scheme rules; incorporation of its data and APIs in the Victorian Government’s new data API marketplace; its new national digital identity scheme and system which is tailored at streamlining identity verification processes for leading banks and other financial services institutions; and in relation to Australian financial services licensing laws (including relating to disclosure and engaging with ASIC regarding exemptions from licensing requirements), anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws, sanctions laws, unfair contracts regime, e-payments code
• Westpac in relation to its participation in the Lygon distributed ledger platform for bank guarantees
• Woolworths Group, Freelancer, Ubisoft and Canvas in relation to marketplace platforms (including NFTs)
• Geora, Telegram, Firmus Grid, Blockchain Music, Flex Apps, GlobalBlock, Blockchain Access UK and Loda Finance in relation to digital asset strategies
• Blockchain Music and MODA Foundation in relation to the establishment of a Web3 community for music rights and streaming, including the establishment of a decentralised autonomous organisation and structuring related governance arrangements
• Lyra Finance in relation to the structure and operation of a decentralised autonomous organisation (including governance arrangements) and the creation of a decentralised options trading protocol
• MYOB in relation to the establishment and launch of a range of new non-cash payment products and alternative acquiring functions, including the launch of new direct debit services under the Online Invoice Payments product and proposed new corporate payment acquiring service, Corporate Payables
• WLTH on its establishment as a new payments and challenger lending fintech, including its proposed strategy to become a neobank under the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority’s restricted banking licensing regime and non-operating holding company regime (as well as associated regulatory requirements under the Australian financial services licensing regime and Australian credit licensing regime)
• Centre Consortium LLC in relation to the establishment of an Australian dollar stablecoin
• Coinbase and Galaxy Digital in relation to digital asset funds
• Woolworths Group, Freelancer, Ubisoft and Canvas in relation to marketplace platforms (including NFTs).
• CBA in relation to the BEEM payments app and Westpac in relation to Assembly
• Jefferies Group in connection with the establishment of its Australian equities business and expansion of its investment banking business (Jefferies Australia). This included admission as a trading participant of both ASX and Chi-X
• Synthetix on the establishment of a new blockchain-based platform that enables users to digitise interests in a new form of product which provides synthetic exposure to real world assets
• Temasek Capital in relation to its investments in Immutable and Animoca Brands
• Ebang International Holdings Inc, Caleb & Brown and Star Beta in relation to digital currency exchange and brokerage platforms

Contacts:
Peter Reeves, Partner ~
Tel: +61 2 9263 4290
Email:[email protected]

Simon Burns, Partner
Tel: +61 2 9263 4476
Email:[email protected]