Fenwick | Crypto

The law firm agreed to a settlement in February 2026 and is facing a separate $525 million lawsuit over its role in the collapse of the FTX crypto exchange. Fenwick & West LLP, the principal law firm that advised former cryptocurrency exchange FTX, agreed on Friday to pay $54 million to settle a 2023 class action lawsuit, filed by former customers of the defunct exchange. The plaintiffs allege that Fenwick “facilitated FTX’s fraud” by playing “a key and crucial role in the most important aspects of why and how the FTX fraud was accomplished,” according to the original complaint.  Plaintiffs argue that the Silicon Valley law firm helped the now-bankrupt FTX obscure the misuse of customer funds by creating legal entities, structures and other strategies to hide the commingling of funds, including transfers between the exchange and its trading arm, Alameda Research. Read more

Twenty FTX victims are suing Fenwick & West, claiming the law firm didn’t just represent FTX, it helped build the infrastructure that kept the fraud running. A group of 20 victims from five countries or jurisdictions has filed a $525 million lawsuit against Fenwick & West LLP, one of Silicon Valley’s top tech law firms, accusing it of helping conceal the FTX fraud. The complaint, filed Wednesday in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, names the firm alongside six individual defendants. The plaintiffs say they lost their life savings when FTX collapsed, claiming that Fenwick’s involvement gave the exchange a false air of legitimacy that kept them from pulling their money out. At the center of the case is testimony from Nishad Singh, FTX’s former director of engineering, who pleaded guilty to fraud charges and testified at Sam Bankman-Fried’s criminal trial. Singh said he personally told Fenwick attorneys that customer funds were being misused, and instead of walking away, the firm advised on how...