Web3 lawyers

Web3 covers services and applications built on distributed ledgers (public or consortium blockchains) and on native assets (fungible tokens, non-fungible tokens, utility tokens, e-money tokens and asset-referenced tokens).

The applicable legal environment is no longer experimental: it is dense, polycentric and fully binding since 30 December 2024, the date on which all provisions of Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 (MiCA) became applicable.

The Web3 lawyer combines financial law (MiCA, MiFID II, MAR), contract law, intellectual property, consumer law, GDPR, digital criminal law, taxation of digital assets and AML-CFT obligations with technical understanding of blockchain architectures, smart contracts, DeFi protocols and token standards.

Our scope ranges from token issuance (white paper drafting, token qualification, notification or authorisation) to post-litigation disputes (token theft, scams, smart contract hacks, challenges to AMF decisions). We also cover account opening with credit institutions, drafting token agreements, fundraising through token issuance, and taxation of founders and investors.

The firm advises PSANs transitioning to CASP status, Web3 game studios, NFT artists, DAO foundations and crypto asset managers. This practice, fed by constant monitoring of ESMA, EBA, AMF, ACPR and TRACFIN positions, delivers operational solutions defensible before regulators.

Every Web3 project has its own architecture, tokenomics and risk exposure. We adapt our support to project maturity: prototyping, fundraising, launch, scale-up, exit or litigation.

Maître Maria Berrada, partner and legal counsel of the French Video Game Federation, regularly handles blockchain projects and Web3 games. She is supported by Maître Raphaël Molina on NFT intellectual property and business law, and by Maître Alexandre Bigot-Joly on criminal aspects (fraud, breach of trust, money laundering, crypto market manipulation).

The Web3 ecosystem multiplies contract types: token sale agreements (SAFT), minting service agreements, NFT marketplace contracts, tokenised work licence agreements, staking agreements, DAO governance contracts, validation contracts. We draft and negotiate these contracts integrating MiCA, GDPR, DSA and intellectual property constraints.

MiCA distinguishes asset-referenced tokens (ART, articles 16 et seq.) from e-money tokens (EMT, articles 48 et seq.), applicable since 30 June 2024. EMT issuance is reserved to authorised credit institutions and electronic money institutions. ART issuance requires a specific authorisation and white paper approval, with reinforced requirements for significant tokens supervised by the EBA.

Indefinite storage of data on a public blockchain conflicts with the right to erasure (article 17 GDPR) and storage limitation (article 5). We design compliant architectures: off-chain personal data storage, on-chain hashes only, key encryption, DPIA procedures, in line with CNIL and EDPB recommendations.

Web3 disputes are multifaceted: challenge to AMF deregistration decisions, NFT counterfeiting actions, liability claims against DAO founders, criminal proceedings after hacks or rug pulls, recovery of frozen assets. The firm handles both amicable and contentious phases before civil, administrative, criminal and commercial courts in France and Belgium.

Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 of 31 May 2023 entered into force on 29 June 2023; ART and EMT provisions apply since 30 June 2024 and CASP provisions since 30 December 2024. A grandfather clause (article 143 MiCA) allows French PSANs registered or authorised before 30 December 2024 to continue activities until 1 July 2026 at the latest.

After that date, any provider operating without CASP authorisation faces withdrawal of operating rights and the sanctions of the French Monetary and Financial Code. CASP authorisation is granted by the AMF, in coordination with the ACPR for prudential and AML aspects, based on a file specified by the RTS adopted under article 62(5) MiCA.

Requirements include governance, financial soundness (minimum own funds of EUR 50,000 to 150,000 depending on services), client asset segregation, cybersecurity, conflict-of-interest management and complaint handling.

French Ordinance no. 2024-936 of 15 October 2024 transposed MiCA into the French Monetary and Financial Code, opened a simplified authorisation procedure for PSANs benefiting from reinforced registration or optional authorisation under the PACTE Act, and organised the phase-out of the national PSAN regime by 1 July 2026.

The CASP authorisation granted by the AMF carries a European passport allowing services to be provided in all 27 Member States after notification to the host authority.

Regulation (EU) 2023/1113 (Travel Rule), applicable since 30 December 2024, requires CASPs to collect and transmit identification details of the originator and beneficiary for any crypto-asset transfer, with no minimum threshold.

CASPs are also fully subject to AML-CFT vigilance obligations: customer identification, transaction monitoring, five-year record keeping, suspicious transaction reports to TRACFIN, asset freezing.

An NFT is not, in itself, a work of the mind. It is a digital authenticity certificate that may point to a copyright-protected work. Transfer of an NFT does not, absent express stipulation, transfer the author's economic rights, by application of article L.111-3 of the French Intellectual Property Code and the writing requirement of articles L.131-2 and L.131-3.

Under French law, a DAO has no legal personality. Without formal structuring, it risks requalification as a de facto company (articles 1832 and 1873 of the Civil Code), with unlimited joint liability of members for company debts where the activity is commercial.

The Haut Comité Juridique de la Place Financière de Paris recommends hybrid structures combining SAS and association, or jurisdictions with specific DAO regimes (Wyoming, Marshall Islands).

A smart contract is not, in itself, a contract within the meaning of the French Civil Code. It is its automated execution, where the conditions of validity (article 1128: consent, capacity, lawful and certain content) are met. Electronic form is admitted by articles 1125 and 1127-1 of the Civil Code; the evidentiary force of electronic writing results from article 1366.

We draft the natural-language mirror agreements that must accompany any smart contract on which substantial rights rest.

French law no. 2024-449 of 21 May 2024 (SREN) created, in its article 40, a three-year experimental regime for monetisable digital object games (JONUM). Implementing decree no. 2026-60 of 4 February 2026 sets six authorised game categories, excludes casino mechanics, caps accessory rewards, prohibits minor access and imposes AML-CFT obligations.

Stepping outside this framework exposes the publisher to requalification as illegal gambling under article L.320-1 of the French Internal Security Code, criminally sanctioned.

Article 150 VH bis of the French General Tax Code subjects capital gains on disposals of digital assets by individuals to a 30 % flat tax (12.8 % income tax and 17.2 % social contributions), with an annual exemption threshold of EUR 305 and neutrality of crypto-to-crypto exchanges without cash payment.

Habitual buy-sell activity falls under industrial and commercial profits (BIC), mining under non-commercial profits (BNC). NFTs may be integrated into the portfolio under article 150 VH bis or taxed separately as artwork (article 150 VI, 6.5 % flat tax).

Directive (EU) 2023/2226 of 17 October 2023 (DAC8) was to be transposed by 31 December 2025. Its collection and reporting obligations apply to transactions carried out from 1 January 2026, with first reporting between January and September 2027. Any CASP serving European residents, including from outside the EU, is concerned.

Sanctions, set by each Member State, must be dissuasive and may reach several hundred thousand euros per defaulting entity.

The metaverse has no specific legal framework. For trademarks, the speciality principle requires holders to consider specific filings in classes 9, 35, 41 and 42 to cover virtual goods and services. The Hermès v.

MetaBirkins case, decided in the United States in 2023, and several European decisions confirm that a trademark used in the physical world may be infringed by an unauthorised NFT version. Image rights and the GDPR also apply to avatars, biometric scans and immersive interactions.

Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 (DSA), fully applicable since 17 February 2024, applies to NFT marketplaces and Web3 platforms that qualify as hosting services or online platforms.

Obligations include notice-and-action mechanisms (article 16), traceability of professional sellers (KYBC, article 30), transparent terms of use (article 14), transparency reports (article 15) and, for very large platforms, annual systemic risk assessments. Fines may reach 6 % of global turnover.