Matt is the Blockchain Litigation Lead and Co-Head of the Blockchain and Digital Assets Group at Shoosmiths, with a practice in digital asset recovery, complex dispute resolution involving blockchain technology, and intellectual property. 

Having set the precedent in common law jurisdictions worldwide that crypto assets are property in 2019 following payment of a ransom in Bitcoin (see AA v Persons Unknown Re. Bitcoin), Matt has developed proven best practices in tracing and recovering stolen or misappropriated crypto assets as part of a hack, ransom paid, fraud, as part of insolvency or where digital assets need to be located, across multiple jurisdictions for businesses and individuals.

He has built a catalogue of successful High Court decisions, freezing crypto assets via interim injunctions, and securing their return, utilising relationships with forensic specialists, litigation funders, OSIN investigators and trusted counsel. Matt leads on strategy and relies on stress tested Court applications, in many cases against overseas defendants, to secure proprietary and worldwide freezing injunctions to mitigate risk early on. Judgments are usually in private to protect the client's position.

Some examples include:

- obtaining relief against North Korean hackers following an exploit of an established crypto address provider, serving Court documents via NFT.

- securing Court Orders against, and working collaboratively with, major crypto-exchanges, to freeze funds and comply with enforcement provisions, following pig butchering scams and complex fake investment platform frauds.

- acting for a cryptocurrency brokerage whereby business functionality was interrupted by their service provider following Court Orders obtained by the Secret Service, blocking transactions and which resulted in the return of c$1million USDT.

PRESS ARTICLES AND TECHUK

Matt was invited by TechUK to assist in preparing a draft for their response to the Law Commission’s Consultation Paper on Digital Assets with Andy Thornley, and features in LawTech’s “Fireside Chat with Matt Green: Crypto: What is it and how does it work where things go wrong”.

He has also been quoted in a Law 360 article “England Grabs Reins Of Bitcoin Battles With Crypto Decision” for commentary on crypto specific case Tulip Trading Limited (A Seychelles Company) v Bitcoin Association For BSV & Ors [2023] EWCA Civ 83 (03 February 2023), and in both Dow Jones’s Financial News with the headline quote for its article on the state of crypto in law firms in the UK, amongst other publications.  

ACADEMIC: LECTURING AND PUBLICATIONS

He also spoke at the University of Cambridge’s Blockchain Society at King’s College Cambridge as a panellist on “On the Hook: Regulating Web3.” He also lectured at the University of Nottingham’s Masters and PHD class on “When Crypto Assets Became Property: How It Happened And What Happened Next”.

Matt has also co-authored academic papers on blockchain and crypto assets including: “NFT Legal and Regulatory Compliance: Connoisseurship and Critique” and “Decentralised Autonomous Organisations: The Future of Corporate Governance or an Illusion”, both in SSRN’s top ten downloads of their respective months.

He has also authored an article for Bitcoin Magazine entitled “Now That Bitcoin Is Considered Property In The UK, Reclaiming Ransomed Assets Sent To Exchanges Is Much Easier”.

PODCAST AND CONFERENCE SPEAKER

Matt founded and hosts "In Early- The Crypto Podcast", where he speaks to those at the forefront of the Digital Asset space, telling real life stories, discussing the growth and growing pains of the industry, and explaining how blockchain technology has made an impact on people's lives.

The podcast has been featured in The Lawyer’s Briefing Room, and guests have included Dr Craig Wright, who claims to be the founder of Bitcoin- Satoshi Nakamoto, established global custodians like BitGo, technical providers like Coincover, to asset recovery investigators and advisors like Asset Reality, NFT and fractional mining projects, to sports initiatives in Web3. The podcast can be found on YouTube, Apple, and Spotify.

Matt is regular speaker at conferences, including the Crypto AM Summit 2022, the World Litigation Forum 2022, the Belfast De-Fi Conference 2022 and the Fraud Advisory Panel's Demystifying NFT Theft and Fraud event, various Thought Leaders 4 Crypto in Disputes (2022 and 2023) to name a few. He was lectured with Grant Thornton and Nimble insurance on Twitter spaces, on “Fine Art Pieces In The Blockchain Ecosystem” specifically on the recovery of assets following a prominent NFT hack.

He has also featured on ShieledPay’s podcast “ShieldCast” on the complex blockchain market, what is happening on the global stage and the role lawyers play in recovering digital assets.

Matt is also certified with Chainlaysis having completed their Chainalysis Cryptocurrency Fundamentals Certification.