Jason Jian-Shuen Lai

"Leverage deep expertise in crypto legal and regulatory matters to assist the CLO in providing strategic value to founders. Collaborate with the investment team to utilize this expertise as a competitive advantage in winning deals."

• Licensing & Market Entry: Led cross-border licensing projects, including Singapore MAS MPI license covering token operations and U.S. FinCEN MSB registration, enabling compliant market entry under tight timelines.
• Execution: Advised executives to close US$18.7M in financings with the strategic investor Tether by aligning product roadmap, stakeholders, and regulatory narrative under scrutiny, and securing required cross-border approvals.
• Sustainability: Helped founders pivot from fragile, regulatory-arbitrage revenue to durable, compliant revenue streams—enhancing revenue quality for later-stage investor scrutiny.

"Advise the CLO and manage outside counsel on a variety of firm legal matters, including deal execution for investments, coordination of responses to regulatory inquiries and examinations, fund formation, and other general corporate matters."

• Executive Alignment: Operated on a "no surprises" basis—prioritizing critical risks and maintaining high-velocity information flow to build trust early and keep the CLO ahead of the curve.
• Global Orchestration: Partnered with counsels across the U.S., Taiwan, Singapore, Australia, and offshore jurisdictions, setting clear expectations on scope, timing, and quality to keep work outcome-driven.
• Regulatory Communication: Hands-on experience coordinating high-stakes responses to U.S. law enforcement orders and global regulatory inquiries, ensuring precise, risk-mitigated disclosures.

"Support portfolio companies by providing insight on policy developments and guidance on commercial, regulatory, and government relations strategy."

• Product Launch & GTM Enablement: Partnered with crypto startups to make products launch-ready—shaping GTM, policy, and commercial terms so teams can ship, partner, and scale through regulatory headwinds.
• DAO & Governance Execution: Designed workable DAO and governance structures across legal, product, and ops—aligning token governance with investor constraints so protocols could operate, raise, and list.
• Cyber Risk & Data Protection: Built cyber incident response playbooks and cyber risk assessments, converting security and data protection requirements into cost-effective compliance and vendor strategies.

"Advise the firm’s investment team on policy developments relevant to specific deals and market sectors of interest."

• Investment Terms: Hands-on experience with debt financings, SAFEs, a priced equity round, and crypto-native structures including SAFTs and TGEs.
• Advisory Support & Risk Management: Advised offshore DeFi ventures and fund structuring/investment portfolio management; aligned product and legal teams quickly so executives can pursue opportunities with informed, well-calibrated risks.
• Unlocked Potentials: Unlocked optionality by removing regulatory bottlenecks through regulator-facing clarification and scoped engagement, enabling launches of monetizable features and faster GTM execution under regulatory constraints.

"Externalize unique insights on legal and regulatory through persuasive writing targeted to founders (not lawyers)."

• Macro Vision, Micro Precision: Converted vision, strategy, and legal nuance into deployable tools—e.g., redesigning custody models, UI/UX designs, and sequencing GTM.
• Dual Fluency: Aligned regulatory objectives with builder constraints—then redesign narratives and interfaces so both sides can say yes.
• Briefings for Internal Stakeholders: Drafted memoranda and talking points for Director-General and executives, proving ability to simplify complex topics for high-level decision makers.

"Communicate with the public about the firm’s policy work to demonstrate our expertise and leadership on issues that matter to entrepreneurs."

• Public Outreach: Published "Ponzi or Promise? Comparative Digital Asset Regulation and Extraterritorial Enforcement in an Era of Polarized Belief" (2025), "A Clear View of the Crypto Regulation Complexity" (2023) and "The Spaghetti Effect of ICO Regulations" (2020).
• Professional Network: Hosted a 4-month regulatory study group for legal professionals and wallet teams; submitted a proposal to speak at IAPP in 2026; contributed to forming the Taiwan VASP Association with operators and counsel.