Law of Code

Over a trillion dollars worth of perps are traded every month, yet 99% people have never heard of them. Fewer understand how they work.
This podcast is a multi-hour deep dive on perps, starting from the history of grain futures in Chicago to a historic CFTC announcement on Friday, May 29, 2026.
My goal: The internet's most comprehensive explainer on perps.
In this episode, you'll hear from the world's leading experts on the legal layer of perps:
Hyperliquid Policy Center CEO Jake Chervinsky and policy counsel Brad Bourque
BrettHarrison, CEO of Architect
Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos, general counsel of StarkWare
Ryne Miller, partner at Morrison Foerster
Mike Frisch, partner at Croke Fairchild
David Shafer, lawyer at Coinbase
By the end of this episode, I promise you'll be in the top percentile for understanding perps, regardless of where you're starting from. (You just might need to listen twice. There's a lot here.)
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
4:04 What is a perp?
7:18 Why futures contracts exist
8:15 Liquidity fragmentation
11:01 History of U.S. futures
17:08 Richard Nixon, the gold standard and financial futures
21:27 Birth of the CFTC
24:27 Robert Shiller's 1992 paper
30:09 Price convergence
32:00 The funding rate
43:41 Oracles and manipulation risk
47:39 Are perps swaps or futures?
52:44 A @ChairmanSelig clip on perps
54:02 The DCM framework
59:16 DCMs, DCOs and FCMs explained
1:04:55 History of crypto perps (BitMEX, FTX)
1:13:00 How Hyperliquid works
1:25:41 CFTC's historic announcements on May 29, 2026
1:35:00 Fireside with @jchervinsky and @BradBourque of @HyperliquidPC
Newsletter: I'm re-launching the Law of Code newsletter soon: you can ⁠⁠⁠stay updated on emerging tech law for free here⁠⁠⁠. https://www.lawofcode.fm/
Any feedback on this episode? Or how to improve the podcast? ⁠⁠Click here⁠⁠. https://forms.gle/W4d2a5aHuLJjuNdn7
Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute legal or investment advice. Views expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of their employers. Listening to this podcast does not create an attorney-client relationship.

What is the CLARITY Act? Maybe the most important piece of financial legislation in a generation.
This podcast explains the history of U.S. digital asset regulation, why regulation-by-enforcement failed and what the CLARITY Act addresses, plus remaining steps for this to become law.
Guests:
Lewis Cohen, Partner & Co-Chair of CahillNXT's Digital Assets & Emerging Technology practice
Miles Jennings, Head of Policy & General Counsel for a16z crypto
Sarah Brennan, general counsel at Delphi Ventures
Kyle Bligen, Head of Policy and Public Affairs at the Decentralization Research Center
Miller Whitehouse-Levine, CEO at Solana Policy Institute
Dugan Bliss, Head of Litigation at Binance
By the end of this episode, I promise you'll be in the 99th percentile for understanding CLARITY, regardless of whether you're a lawyer, builder or operator.
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
4:46 Explaining market structure
6:05 Regulatory distortion
10:43 Predecessor bills
13:35 Senate Banking markup takeaways
15:46 SEC & CFTC
20:37 The Securities Act of 1933
23:07 The Howey Test
25:26 The Ineluctable Modality of Securities Law
28:51 SEC enforcement
32:32 Why SEC rulemaking isn't enough
37:36 Titles of CLARITY
40:00 Digital commodities
47:29 Investment contract principles
54:10 Promoters: originators
58:18 Promoters: related persons
1:04:13 Token taxonomy
1:11:02 Ancillary asset requirements
1:19:34 The certification process
1:28:32 Remaining hurdles for CLARITY
1:34:50 Stablecoin yield
1:38:45 Ethics
1:45:50 Tax consequences
1:48:54 Thanking people working on the bill, such as @SenLummis, @gillibrandny, @SenatorTimScott, @SenatorHagerty, @SenThomTillis, @MarkWarner, @SenRubenGallego, @Sen_Alsobrooks, their staffs & many, many others.
Newsletter: I'm re-launching the Law of Code newsletter soon: you can ⁠⁠⁠stay updated on emerging tech law for free here⁠⁠⁠. https://www.lawofcode.fm/
Any feedback on this episode? Or how to improve the podcast? ⁠⁠Click here⁠⁠. https://forms.gle/W4d2a5aHuLJjuNdn7
Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute legal or investment advice. Views expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of their employers. Listening to this podcast does not create an attorney-client relationship.

Can the U.S. government send a software developer to prison for writing and publishing code?
That's the question at the center of the Tornado Cash and Samourai Wallet prosecutions, and every crypto founder, builder and investor should understand the answer.
This deep-dive episode walks through the history of U.S. money transmission law, how the DOJ is applying it to non-custodial software developers, what the Roman Storm verdict actually means, and what new legislation could change in 2026.
Guests:
Peter Van Valkenburgh — Executive Director, Coin Center
Amanda Tuminelli — Chief Executive Officer, DeFi Education Fund
Brian Klein — Partner at Cooley, lead defense attorney for Roman Storm
Jake Chervinsky — Hyperliquid Policy Center (cameo)
This is the most comprehensive podcast I've ever done. Welcome to Law of Code, Season 2.
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
3:18 What's at stake?
4:40 Which developers are at risk
6:03 Custodial vs. non-custodial
9:32 What is a money transmission license?
9:47 Steamships, the telegraph & Western Union
12:14 The Bank Secrecy Act
13:38 Section 1960
15:26 The Patriot Act
19:39 FinCEN's 2013 and 2019 guidance
24:42 OFAC sanctions Tornado Cash
27:30 How Tornado Cash works
30:48 Coin Center v. Yellen
32:24 DOJ indicts Roman Storm, Roman Semenov, Roman Sterlingov & Samourai Wallet developers
35:15 The Van Loon win
40:33 Developer losses
43:48 Bad facts make bad law
48:46 Brian Klein on Roman Storm's case
50:50 The Brady letter
57:00 Michael Lewellen sues for answers
1:09:24 The Blanche memo
1:18:46 The Galeotti speech
1:26:13 Catch-22 for developers
1:30:03 The chilling effect on U.S. innovation
1:33:48 Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act
1:38:03 Promoting Innovation in Blockchain Development Act
1:45:28 What's next
Nothing in this podcast is legal or investment advice.
Newsletter: I'm re-launching the Law of Code newsletter soon: you can ⁠⁠⁠stay updated on emerging tech law for free here⁠⁠⁠. https://www.lawofcode.fm/
Any feedback on this episode? Or how to improve the podcast? ⁠⁠Click here⁠⁠. https://forms.gle/W4d2a5aHuLJjuNdn7
Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute legal or investment advice. Views expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of their employers. Listening to this podcast does not create an attorney-client relationship.

Does attorney-client privilege exist when you use ChatGPT or Claude? Should it?
Jacob Robinson sits down with Mike Katz, Partner at Manatt Phelps & Phillips, to examine whether attorney-client privilege, work product or any analogous protection applies when people ask AI chatbots legal questions.
Timestamps:
➡️ 0:00 — Background
➡️ 1:47 — What is attorney-client privilege?
➡️ 2:44 — Policy reasons for narrowing privilege
➡️ 3:30 — The Upjohn case (1981)
➡️ 4:34 — Privilege vs. work product doctrine
➡️ 5:17 — Three elements to establish privilege
➡️ 7:23 — Consumer AI terms of service and confidentiality
➡️ 8:09 — How you lose privilege
➡️ 11:30 — War stories
➡️ 15:39 — Vibe lawyering
➡️ 19:09 — Could Anthropic, OpenAI be liable?
➡️ 22:48 — The Heppner case (2026)
➡️ 26:26 — The Kovel doctrine (1961)
➡️ 28:14 — Incognito mode & deleted chats
➡️ 30:59 — The policy question
➡️ 34:00 — This is not a new problem
➡️ 37:05 — Are lawyers coal or horses? Jevons Paradox
Sponsor: Day One Law, a boutique corporate law firm that provides strategic legal counsel to startups, crypto projects, and Web3 innovators. ⁠You can get in contact with them via this link⁠: ⁠⁠https://www.dayonelaw.xyz/#contact.
Also: I'm re-launching the Law of Code newsletter as the world's shortest legal newsletter! You can ⁠⁠stay updated on emerging tech law for free here⁠⁠. https://www.lawofcode.fm/
Any feedback on this episode? Or how to improve the podcast? ⁠Click here⁠. https://forms.gle/W4d2a5aHuLJjuNdn7
Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute legal or investment advice. Views expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of their employers. Listening to this podcast does not create an attorney-client relationship.

When does U.S. law require Circle to freeze USDC? It's a question many are asking after a series of wallets were frozen in connection to a sealed civil case, and again after Solana's Drift Protocol was drained of $285 million.
Jacob Robinson is joined by Austin Campbell, founder of Zero Knowledge Consulting and adjunct professor at Columbia Business School, for a masterclass on the legal framework governing stablecoin freezes.
Timestamps:
➡️ 0:00 — Intro
➡️ 2:00 — The March 2026 freeze of 16 wallets tied to a sealed civil case
➡️ 4:31 — How bank freezes actually work
➡️ 7:27 — Circle's legal obligation to freeze
➡️ 9:40 — Does Circle's terms of service even apply to secondary holders?
➡️ 11:24 — The privity problem
➡️ 13:20 — The five-piece legal framework that functions like a safe harbor for institutions freezing assets
➡️ 16:43 — DeFi's second-order exposure to asset freezes
➡️ 18:29 — Can DeFi adapt?
➡️ 21:03 — Circle's response to the Drift exploit
➡️ 22:34 — DeFi and the legal system
➡️ 24:27 — Bitcoin as the ideologically consistent alternative
➡️ 28:18 — Why people want intermediaries with liability
➡️ 31:04 — The Drift exploit: why Circle should have frozen USDC
➡️ 36:34 — The exploit difficulty
➡️ 38:27 — Real world assets on chain: the DeFi trilemma
Sponsor: Day One Law, a boutique corporate law firm that provides strategic legal counsel to startups, crypto projects, and Web3 innovators. ⁠You can get in contact with them via this link⁠: ⁠⁠https://www.dayonelaw.xyz/#contact.
Resources:
📓 Circle's April 10, 2026 statement on the Drift exploit and USDC freeze authority by Dante Disparte
📓 ZachXBT's X thread on Circle's USDC freeze history
Also: I'm re-launching the Law of Code newsletter as the world's shortest legal newsletter! You can ⁠stay updated on emerging tech law for free here⁠. https://lawofcode.beehiiv.com/
Any feedback on this episode? Or how to improve the podcast? Click here. https://forms.gle/W4d2a5aHuLJjuNdn7
Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute legal or investment advice. Views expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of their employers. Listening to this podcast does not create an attorney-client relationship.