People Mentioned
Partner, Corporate, Calgary
An intrigue with bitcoin and its possibilities 10 years ago has led to his expertise and specialization in the digital asset space, Matt Burgoyne told interviewer Tyler Chisholm in a recent Collisions YYC podcast.
Matt’s interest in this field coincided with a law firm change in 2013 where he wanted to become more entrepreneurial and build his own block of business. He read an article on bitcoin and subsequently published his own piece addressing how Canadian law could apply to this area. Within a few days a company called and Matt had his first bitcoin client. He also took a hands-on approach by learning to buy, sell and trade his first bitcoin. As public interest in bitcoin grew, Matt received regular calls from mainstream media for his views. He began marketing his knowledge, writing regular articles, particularly for CoinDesk, a leader in cryptocurrency news, as well as posting ideas on social media. Matt’s bitcoin and digital asset business grew from 20% of his practice in 2014 to 100% by the end of 2020.
His clients are global in nature, including Canada, the U.S., the U.K., Europe, Israel and China. With new clients entering Canada, Matt helps them with setting up subsidiaries, if required, as well as all corporate-related matters, including drafting Canadian contracts, securities, regulatory advice, and anti-money laundering counsel.
Partly as a result of the cryptocurrency winter, and partly as a result of increased regulatory scrutiny, Matt is seeing a shift from centrally controlled cryptocurrency platforms to decentralized marketplaces. A decentralized platform has less risk of fraud and mismanagement. Matt says some of his clients are pivoting towards this newer model.
People Mentioned
Partner, Corporate, Calgary
