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.

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01 The numbers

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
02 Reading the data

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.

Digital Assets & Crypto deals by year

2026 runs to October.

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%.

Share of deals involving each practice

Deal value was disclosed on 18.3% of them; where disclosed, the median was $250 million. 167 distinct clients appear across the window.

Where the work is done: share of the sector's deals handled with lawyers in each city

First among advising firms is Latham & Watkins, with deals in the 21-40 band.

Lateral moves by lawyers with this focus, by year

2026 runs to October.

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.

03 Firms

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.

Advising firms ranked by deals, 12 months
RankFirmDeals (band)
1Latham & Watkins21-40
2Davis Polk & Wardwell11-20
3DLA Piper11-20
4Cooley11-20
5Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati6-10
6Goodwin Procter6-10
7Sidley Austin6-10
8Reed Smith6-10
9Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP & Affiliates6-10
10Winston Taylor6-10
04 Explore

Related monitors and reports

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].

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