Florian Prantl

About Florian

Florian advises Swiss and international fintech and crypto clients across a broad range of legal areas, with a focus on regulatory compliance, corporate matters, financing, transactions, IP, and contracts. His expertise in financial market regulation comes from years of experience at international law firms, courts, and policy organizations. In addition to his legal practice, Florian regularly lectures and speaks on his areas of focus, keeping him at the forefront of the latest developments in the industry.

Focus Areas

Regulatory and ComplianceDigital Assets and CryptoCorporate

Selected Track Record

• (x-border) Legal structuring: Comprehensive legal, regulatory and taxation structuring for a portfolio of 30+ projects in Tech, FinTech, DeFi (decentralized exchanges, lending, asset management, launchpads, governance), stable coins, infrastructure (mining operations, staking, restaking, L1s/L2s, oracles), gaming and others. Examples include tier1 decentralised stablecoin project, Solana-based tier1 DeFi hub, restaking competitor to Eigenlayer and Swiss-based liquid staking provider.
• General counsel support: Ongoing legal support for various clients including leading Swiss custody, brokerage and staking-as-a-service provider (product offerings, staking, legal opinion on tokens), L1s and L2s (Cardano, Tezos, others), various financial service providers and startups. Advice on (pre-)litigation cases.
• Asset tokenization and stable coins: 30+ companies tokenized under Swiss DLT laws; tokenization work on financial instruments (shares, bonds, structured products), real estate, carbon credits, precious metals (gold, palladium, silver) and gemstones, collectibles and art. Work on various (decentralized and centralized) USD, CHF and EUR stable coin projects. Examples include the collaboration with Steakhouse Financial on the onboarding of BackedFi-tokenized blb01 US treasuries by MakerDAO, work with Aktionariat, Liquity and others.
• Regulatory work: Evaluation of business models under securities laws, banking, AML/CTF and asset management regulations. Examples include regulatory setup of Swiss robo advisor/wealth manager, corporate mobility solution provider and AI software provider.
• Financing and transactions: 15+ token / debt / equity financings (investment agreement, term sheet, SAFT, SAFE / convertibles, token warrants, prospectus, MiCA whitepaper), public token offerings, regular OTC crypto deals worth USD 5-10 million+ and token-based M&A.
• SROs/VASPs and FINMA licenses/rulings: 10+ affiliations with Swiss self-regulatory organizations (VQF in Zug) for financial intermediaries (payment service provider, broker, trading, exchange, custody). Regular rulings with Swiss financial market regulator (FINMA) on new business models, tokens, etc.
• Contract drafting and negotiations: Experience in a wide range of business contracts (software development and licensing, terms and conditions, privacy documents, employee and contactor, market making and exchange listing, audit, grants, marketing, and sponsorship)
• Policy work: Collaborations with the European Crypto Initiative, the Swiss Blockchain Federation, the Swiss Finance and Technology Association, and founding member of the DeFi Collective, a DeFi industry association supported by Polygon Labs, Liquity, Velo/Aero on Optimism, Maverick and others.

Speaking Engagements & Publications

• Lecturer at CAS Digital Assets and CAS Digital Asset Specialist at HWZ Zurich University of Applied Sciences in Business Administration
• Custodial Staking in Swiss Journal of Corporate and Capital Market Law and Restructuring (GesKR 3/2023), co-authored alongside Fabio Andreotti (Bitcoin Suisse) and Stephan Zimmermann (Sygnum)
• Thesis on Swiss regulatory requirements for Robo Advice under the Swiss Federal Act on Financial Services (FinSA)
• Various short-form publications across token classifications, DeFi licensing models, and other topics.

Languages

German, English