Dax Hansen
Partner, Perkins Coie
A Seattle payments and digital asset lawyer who, by his own account, inherited his firm's small electronic financial services practice as a fifth-year associate and built a fintech practice from it, he was billed at Proof of Talk Paris 2026 as Partner, Perkins Coie, weeks before that firm combined with Ashurst to become Ashurst Perkins Coie.
Why the room needs them.
Dax Hansen practises payments, fintech and digital asset law from Seattle, and spoke at Proof of Talk Paris 2026 as Partner, Perkins Coie. He was a panellist on "Institutional DeFi: The Use Cases Worth the Risk". Chambers ranks him Band 1 for blockchain and cryptocurrencies in its FinTech 2026 guide, USA nationwide, and he is now one of two global sector leaders for financial services at Ashurst Perkins Coie, the firm formed when Perkins Coie and Ashurst combined on 28 June 2026.
The full account.
Dax Hansen practises payments, fintech and digital asset law from Seattle. He spoke at Proof of Talk Paris 2026 as Partner, Perkins Coie, on the panel "Institutional DeFi: The Use Cases Worth the Risk", which ran on the Hecto Main Stage from 11:00 to 11:40 on 2 June 2026 inside the programme's Tokenisation of Finance track. Maja Vujinovic of FGNexus and Stéphanie Cabossioras of Société Générale-FORGE were the other panellists; Hadley Stern moderated.
He clerked at Perkins Coie in 1997 and 1998 and joined in 1999, he told The First Buck Podcast. By his account he inherited the firm's small electronic financial services practice as a fifth-year associate, after the junior partner running it left to build Amazon's payments business, and built his crypto work from that base. His firm bio says he founded the fintech industry group, and a firm release of 11 December 2024 names Joe Cutler as that group's chair and Hansen as its founder.
Chambers ranks him Band 1 for blockchain and cryptocurrencies in its FinTech 2026 guide, USA nationwide, and its profile records nine years ranked. Deal work published by his firm includes April 2025 advice to a group of crypto industry figures taking majority ownership of Janover Inc., a listed platform company serving commercial real estate, whose board then made digital assets, starting with Solana, its primary treasury reserve; the company renamed itself DeFi Development Corp. later that month. In January 2026 Perkins Coie acted alongside Ashurst as US legal advisers on Zepz's purchase of a credit product from the San Francisco fintech Pomelo, on a team led by David Martinez with Hansen and Sam Boro.
Perkins Coie and Ashurst completed their combination on 28 June 2026, forming Ashurst Perkins Coie, where Hansen is one of two global sector leaders for financial services, with Lee Doyle in London.
On the same podcast he described a second working life in agriculture, growing White Sonora wheat and running sheep on a 665-acre farm. The farm's own site records Oatman Flats Ranch, on the Lower Gila River in Arizona, as bought in late 2018, certified organic in 2019 and, on 26 May 2021, the first Regenerative Organic Certified farm in the American Southwest. His firm bio lists him on the Kiss the Ground advisory council since 2021 and as co-chair of the Chamber of Digital Commerce's state working group since 2016.
Years of shipping.
Lines that keep proving correct.
“It was small and fledgling, but I got so interested in all of these areas of the law and started just advising companies, making FinTech law. FinTech wasn't even a category and I just made it up.”
“I specialized in that intersection of technology and money and money and technology never go out of style. And so I've just ridden that wave my entire career.”
“You don't have to have any preexisting background or social demographic profile. You just have to be curious and you have to dig in and figure something out.”
What they have built, written, and backed.
Built
- The fintech industry group at Perkins CoieHis firm bio says he founded it, and a firm release of 11 December 2024 names Joe Cutler as its chair and Hansen as its founder. On The First Buck Podcast he described the starting point: the firm's small electronic financial services practice, which he inherited as a fifth-year associate after the junior partner running it left to build Amazon's payments business.
- "Treatment of Bitcoin Under U.S. Property Law", March 2017A 24-page Perkins Coie white paper written with associate Joshua L. Boehm, surveying how US state property law treats bitcoin, with sections on the Uniform Commercial Code and on special versus general deposits. A copy sits in the materials of a Wyoming Legislature interim committee.
- Oatman Flats Ranch and Oatman FarmsA 665-acre farm on the Lower Gila River in Arizona, bought in late 2018 and organically certified in 2019. The farm's own site says it became the first Regenerative Organic Certified farm in the American Southwest on 26 May 2021, and describes a product line built on heritage crops: wheat berries, stone-milled flour, mixes and vanilla extract.
The next Proof of Talk is in Abu Dhabi.
Louvre Abu Dhabi, 3–4 December 2026. Admission is by application, and the room is capped at 2,000.
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