Client industry · November 2026
Digital Assets & Crypto: who advises the sector
Dated deals for digital assets & crypto clients over the last 12 months, the practices and firms behind them, and how lawyers with this focus moved.
The last 12 months: November 2025 to October 2026
- 300
- Dated deals, 12 monthsNovember 2025 to October 2026
- -8.9%
- Year on yearSettled 12-month windows
- $250m
- Median disclosed value
- 167
- Distinct clients
What the data show
From November 2025 to October 2026, Sartori & Partners recorded 300 dated deals for Digital Assets & Crypto clients. On settled windows the deal count went from 360 to 328 (-8.9%), a change inside the noise of the two counts, so we read it as flat. The deal market as a whole moved +10.6% over the same windows.
By practice, Capital Markets is involved in 37.7% of these deals and Corporate & M&A in 30.0%. By deal type, Capital markets is involved in 38.0% of these deals and M&A in 23.3%.
Deal value was disclosed on 18.3% of them; where disclosed, the median was $250 million. 167 distinct clients appear across the window.
First among advising firms is Latham & Watkins, with deals in the 21-40 band.
Lawyers whose work centers on Digital Assets & Crypto changed firm 58 times in the same window. Partners were 56.9% of those moves, against 27.7% across the lateral market. Year on year those moves changed +22.4%.
For a company in Digital Assets & Crypto, the adviser table shows where sector experience sits, which is where an in-house hire is most likely to come from.
Firms by rank and band
Each firm appears as a rank and a band, never an exact count, and only with at least 10 moves in the window.
| Rank | Firm | Deals (band) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Latham & Watkins | 21-40 |
| 2 | Davis Polk & Wardwell | 11-20 |
| 3 | DLA Piper | 11-20 |
| 4 | Cooley | 11-20 |
| 5 | Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati | 6-10 |
| 6 | Goodwin Procter | 6-10 |
| 7 | Sidley Austin | 6-10 |
| 8 | Reed Smith | 6-10 |
| 9 | Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP & Affiliates | 6-10 |
| 10 | Winston Taylor | 6-10 |
Related monitors and reports
Deal types
Other industries
- Banks & Financial Institutions
- Financial Sponsors
- Technology & Software
- Pharma & Biotech
- Asset Management & Funds
- Real Estate
- Power & Renewables
- Consumer Goods & Retail
- Food, Beverage & Agriculture
- Healthcare Providers & Payors
- Oil & Gas
- Industrial Manufacturing
- Media & Entertainment
- Utilities, Water & Waste
- Government & Public Sector
- Automotive
- Insurance
- Electronics & Semiconductors
- Medical Devices
- Mining & Metals
- Individuals & Consumers
- Hospitality & Leisure
- Aerospace & Defence
- Infrastructure
- Construction & Engineering
- Professional Services
- Fintech & Payments
- Telecommunications
- Transportation & Logistics
- Chemicals
- Sports
- Nonprofits & Charities
- Aviation
- Education
Up one level
Working with us
Reports
- 58.0% New York, 22.9% Washington: A Crypto Panel Needs Both Cities
Lawyers in New York worked on 58.0% of digital asset and crypto deals, the highest New York share of any sector, and Washington came second at 22.9%. Financial regulatory lawyers sit on many times the market's share of these deals, and the deal count held flat.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - Where Crypto Lawyers Go: Firms of 1,000+ Lawyers, Rarely a New City
Of the lawyers with a digital asset focus who changed firms, 72.4% joined firms of 1,000+ lawyers, against 53.6% market-wide, and over 36 months they changed city on 11.6% of moves against 21.6%. Moves held flat: a crypto company hiring in-house bids against large-firm pay for a lawyer who rarely relocates.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026
Edition November 2026. Window: November 2025 to October 2026. Source: Sartori & Partners, from public law-firm announcements, firm websites and professional profiles, checked monthly. Methodology. Spot an error? [email protected].
For general counsel and boards
Hiring a lawyer in-house?
A retained search starts with the market: who could take the role, where they sit and what it will take to move them.