Key Takeaways
- • Joshua Garcia, co-founder of boutique crypto firm Ketsal, joined Morrison Cohen as a digital assets partner on December 2, 2025, citing market consolidation toward larger law firms in the cryptocurrency and digital assets space.
- • Garcia explicitly stated that cryptocurrency and digital asset clients now require service breadth beyond what boutique firms can provide, signaling a structural shift in how institutional clients approach legal representation in the sector.
- • Morrison Cohen's addition of Garcia marks the firm's second digital assets partner hire in 2025, demonstrating aggressive expansion into a practice area as major clients migrate from specialized boutiques to full-service firms.
- • Garcia specializes in money transmitter and payments regulatory law, filling a specific gap in Morrison Cohen's cross-disciplinary digital assets group and expanding the firm's service capabilities across cryptocurrency exchanges, developers, banks, and venture capital funds.
Summary
The cryptocurrency and digital assets legal market is experiencing consolidation, with institutional clients and practitioners increasingly shifting from boutique firms to larger, full-service law firms. Joshua Garcia's move to Morrison Cohen exemplifies this trend. Garcia, who co-founded the boutique firm Ketsal in 2018 and spent over seven years building the practice, joined Morrison Cohen as a digital assets partner on December 2, 2025.
In an interview, Garcia articulated the fundamental driver behind his departure: boutique firms can no longer adequately serve the expanding needs of cryptocurrency and digital asset clients. "The digital assets and cryptocurrency space are outgrowing the services a boutique firm can offer," Garcia explained. He noted that both clients and attorneys in the space recognize that institutional requirements now demand the integrated, cross-disciplinary capabilities only larger firms can deliver. At Ketsal, Garcia worked with cryptocurrency and AI developers, state and federal banks, capital markets operators, venture capital funds, and centralized exchanges—a client base requiring regulatory expertise spanning multiple jurisdictions and practice areas.
Garcia's specific expertise in money transmitter and payments regulatory law filled a gap in Morrison Cohen's existing digital assets group. "I was impressed by how well integrated the digital assets group was across the firm," Garcia said. "They didn't have a true money transmitter, payments regulatory lawyer, which is what I am. I slot it in quite nicely, really filled the gap. They had more of a white glove service than I was able to provide at the boutique." This hiring decision reflects a broader pattern: Morrison Cohen brought on its second digital assets partner in 2025, underscoring the firm's strategic focus on capturing market share in a practice area undergoing structural change. The move signals that as cryptocurrency and digital assets mature as an institutional asset class, legal service delivery is consolidating around full-service platforms capable of addressing complex, multi-jurisdictional regulatory and commercial requirements.
In an interview, Garcia articulated the fundamental driver behind his departure: boutique firms can no longer adequately serve the expanding needs of cryptocurrency and digital asset clients. "The digital assets and cryptocurrency space are outgrowing the services a boutique firm can offer," Garcia explained. He noted that both clients and attorneys in the space recognize that institutional requirements now demand the integrated, cross-disciplinary capabilities only larger firms can deliver. At Ketsal, Garcia worked with cryptocurrency and AI developers, state and federal banks, capital markets operators, venture capital funds, and centralized exchanges—a client base requiring regulatory expertise spanning multiple jurisdictions and practice areas.
Garcia's specific expertise in money transmitter and payments regulatory law filled a gap in Morrison Cohen's existing digital assets group. "I was impressed by how well integrated the digital assets group was across the firm," Garcia said. "They didn't have a true money transmitter, payments regulatory lawyer, which is what I am. I slot it in quite nicely, really filled the gap. They had more of a white glove service than I was able to provide at the boutique." This hiring decision reflects a broader pattern: Morrison Cohen brought on its second digital assets partner in 2025, underscoring the firm's strategic focus on capturing market share in a practice area undergoing structural change. The move signals that as cryptocurrency and digital assets mature as an institutional asset class, legal service delivery is consolidating around full-service platforms capable of addressing complex, multi-jurisdictional regulatory and commercial requirements.
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