UK Law Firm Becomes First To Accept Crypto as Payment

By Scott Chipolina

UK law firm Gunnercooke has announced that it is now accepting cryptocurrency as payment for legal and professional services. 

“It’s vital that we accept payment in this way for our substantial client base, which spans the entire blockchain and cryptoasset ecosystem,” said Financial Services and FinTech Partner James Burnie in a prepared statement. “Accepting payment in cryptoassets demonstrates our commitment to and understanding of this important and growing community.”

“Over the next decade I expect to see a gradual transition towards cryptocurrency becoming increasingly accepted as a means of payment generally.” 

The law firm is partnering with cryptoasset exchange Coinpass to facilitate the exchange of cryptocurrency. 

Jeff Hancock, Coinpass CEO, said the Coinpass team are “proud to be Gunnercooke’s crypto exchange partner,” and added that they were “excited to be partnered with an organization that has ambitions to push blockchain and crypto forward in the UK.” 

Gunnercooke, which has 10 offices spanning across the UK and Germany, has a client base of around 100 cryptocurrency developers, platforms and exchanges. One such example is Attestant, a crypto-staking business which the law firm advised relating to legal and regulatory matters involved in crypto staking. 

Crypto payments

The firm believes it is the first UK firm to make this move. Naseer Patel, Finance Director at Gunnercooke, said the firm is “proud to be at the forefront of innovation in the UK.” 

But while the list may be small, other law firms in the United States have already begun accepting cryptocurrencies as payment. 

According to The American Lawyer, Perkins Coie, Steptoe & Johnson and Quinn Emmanuel Urquhart & Sullivan have been accepting Bitcoin since 2013, 2016 and 2019 respectively. 

If Visa’s crypto credit card usage is anything to go by, it appears that the broader adoption of cryptocurrency as payment is also on the rise. 

In an earnings call last month, Visa said customers made $2.5 billion in payments using crypto-linked cards during the first fiscal quarter of 2022 (Visa defines the quarter ending December 31 as the first quarter of the new year). 

“To us, this signals that consumers see utility in having a Visa card linked to an account at a crypto platform,” Visa CFO Vasant Prahbu said during an interview with CNBC.

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