Fenwick & West Sees Coinbase Listing as the Start of Crypto Work

Fenwick & West lawyers who helped Coinbase become the first publicly traded major cryptocurrency company snuck a crypto reference onto the first page of the company’s filing with securities regulators this month.

They listed Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious figure presumed to be—but never identified as—the founder of Bitcoin, among those receiving copies of the document.

It likely won’t be the last chance Fenwick & West lawyers get to slip a crypto “Easter egg” to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The Silicon Valley-founded law firm represents more than 50 private companies valued at more than $1 billion, which it thinks ...