Emma L. Channing
Overview
Emma Channing advises digital asset, blockchain technology, and cryptocurrency companies operating as token issuers, funds, trading platforms, banking entities, and registered broker-dealers. She also guides U.S. and international traditional financial services firms and funds looking to gain exposure or entrance into digital assets. Emma helps these clients “get to yes” to operate within existing and new financial technologies within what is a well-established but rapidly evolving domestic and international regulatory outlook.
A globally recognized blockchain attorney and technologist, Emma boasts significant experience across several key aspects of digital asset transactions, including entity formation, corporate counseling and compliance, mergers and acquisitions, and emerging securities and financial regulation. At the forefront of her highly agile and constantly evolving practice is Real-World Asset (RWA) tokenization, including stablecoins.
Prior to joining Spencer Fane, Emma was the founder, CEO, and general counsel of the Satis Group, which coordinated legal, broker-dealer, and technology support for tokenization for financial services clients. She has also held in-house roles at several technology and blockchain related companies with a focus on startups.
Emma is a FINRA registered representative holding the Series 63 and 79, providing a unique, wide-angle perspective to advise clients. She began her career in major international firms focusing on M&A, restructuring, capital markets, and public company advisory.
Backed by more than two decades of legal experience and multifaceted work in and around digital assets, which includes involvement with some of the first tokenized funds and significant contributions to blockchain platform design, Emma has been an influential voice in shaping cryptocurrency legislation across several states containing key technological innovation hubs, including Colorado, California, New York, and Wyoming, as well as on an international stage. She has testified before the Wyoming Blockchain Task Force – the leader of blockchain legislation progression in the U.S. – and contributed draft testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology and Inclusion on how RWA tokenization can facilitate more efficient financial markets.
As she seamlessly operates at the intersection of conventional financial services law and the digital asset space, Emma prioritizes her position on the cutting edge of new legal and business pathways within rapidly progressing categories of cryptocurrency. Externally, she has been listed in numerous cryptocurrency-centered publications and was described as a “blockchain industry pioneer” in the first Blockchain & Crypto Regulation Treatise by Global Legal Insights.
Emma has founded several collaborative organizations within digital assets, including being one of the founding members of Global Blockchain Convergence, an invite-only collaborative organization focused on digital asset regulation; and NodeWomen, an invite-only networking organization for women within Fintech, digital assets, and blockchain.
Emma is also involved in her local Foothills community in Colorado in various volunteer positions, and has an active pro bono practice focused on survivors.
Credentials
Education
- Stanford University Law School, 2010 (LLM)
- Durham University, 1998 (LLM)
- Durham University, 1997 (LLB)
- Testified before the Wyoming Blockchain Task Force – the leader of blockchain legislation progression in the U.S.
- Contributed draft testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology and Inclusion on how RWA tokenization can facilitate more efficient financial markets.
- CoinDesk, Most Influential People in Blockchain
- Crypto Daily, Top 30 Cryptocurrency Innovators
- Stayawhile, Who’s Who in Crypto
- Global Blockchain Convergence, Founding Member
- NodeWomen, Founding Member
- “How Tokenization of Real-World Assets Will Facilitate Efficient Markets,” Testimony for U.S. House Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology and Inclusion, July 2024
- “Bowie: Rock God or Tax Genius?” SSRN, February 2016