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Sebastian Dey

Sebastian Dey

Senior Counsel
Baker McKenzie Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH von Rechtsanwälten und Steuerberatern

Biography

Sebastian Dey is a senior counsel in Baker McKenzie’s Banking & Finance Practice Group in Frankfurt. He is admitted as a lawyer in Germany and as a solicitor in England & Wales and advises at the intersection of capital markets, financial regulation and technological innovation.

Sebastian advises financial institutions, financial market infrastructures and corporates on traditional and digital capital markets products. His practice combines DLT-based capital markets products with product-related financial regulation and regulatory capital treatment, including credit risk mitigation.

Before joining Baker McKenzie, Sebastian was head of Digital Assets Germany at a leading international law firm.

Sebastian is a co-author of two established practitioner handbooks on financial derivatives and digital capital markets. He also founded and hosts “The Token Lawyer,” a podcast dedicated to digital capital markets. Market participants regularly engage him to co-author white papers and thought-leadership pieces on digitalisation in financial markets. He publishes specialist articles and speaks at conferences. Sebastian is also a founding member of the Digital Assets & Blockchain Committee of the German Association for Financial Analysis and Asset Management (DVFA).

Practice Focus

Sebastian’s practice focuses on three equally important and closely interconnected areas: digital capital markets products, traditional derivatives and financing products, and product-related financial services regulation.

For digital capital markets products, he advises financial institutions, financial market infrastructures and corporates on DLT-based issuances, crypto securities under the eWpG, tokenised financial instruments and crypto derivatives, as well as digital solutions for collateral mobilisation.

For traditional derivatives and financing products, Sebastian advises on derivatives, repo and securities lending transactions, Schuldscheindarlehen, registered bonds and structured financing products.

His product-related financial regulatory practice has a particular focus on the regulatory classification and regulatory capital treatment of these products, including credit risk mitigation, in particular under the CRR/CRD, CSDR, EMIR, MiFID II/MiFIR, the EU DLT Pilot Regime and MiCAR.

Representative Legal Matters

Selected digital capital markets and digital assets matters handled by Sebastian before he joined Baker McKenzie:

  • Advised on the issuance of the KfW's first two crypto securities under the German Electronic Securities Act (eWpG), and on selected legal issues relating to its third crypto securities issuance.
  • Advised LBBW on the issuance of a fully digital registered bond using distributed ledger technology.
  • Advised on the issuance of DekaBank's first crypto securities under the eWpG via Deka’s securities platform, SWIAT.
  • Advised Deka Bank on the registry-law structuring, using distributed ledger technology, of digital registered bonds issued by German savings banks.
  • Advised Vonovia on the issuance of the first fully digital registered bond using distributed ledger technology.
  • Advised Fnality Payment System, a consortium of leading international banks, on the legal structuring of a global blockchain-based payment system.
  • Advised Deutsche Börse/Eurex Clearing on legal and regulatory aspects of expanding the clearing product offering to include physically settled crypto futures.

Selected capital markets and transactional matters:

  • Advised on capital markets aspects of transferring the business of HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt GmbH to a newly established German branch of HSBC Continental Europe.
  • Advised on capital markets aspects of the sale of Commerzbank's Equity Markets & Commodities business to Société Générale.
  • Advised MUFG in connection with the acquisition of DVB Bank’s market-leading aviation finance business.

Professional Honors

  • Named by Legal 500 in 2026 as a key lawyer in a leading international law firm's fintech practice, particularly for crypto securities issuances under the eWpG and DLT-related capital markets matters, during his tenure as head of Digital Assets Germany  

Professional Associations and Memberships

  •  German Association for Financial Analysis and Asset Management (DVFA), Digital Assets & Blockchain Committee - Founding member 

Admissions

  • Rechtsanwalt, Germany (2011)
  • England & Wales (Solicitor) (2008)

Education

  • Oxford Institute of Legal Practice (Post-Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice) (2005)
  • BPP Law School (Post Graduate Diploma English Law) (2004)
  • University of Applied Sciences (Diplom-Wirtschaftsjurist ) (2003)

Languages

  • English
  • German

Publications

Publications

  • Co-author, “Skalierbare Tokenisierung im Kapitalmarkt,” Finanz- und Wirtschaftsspiegel, 2026
  • Co-author, “Treasury 4.0 – Warum sich Corporate Treasurer mit Blockchain, Stablecoins und elektronischen Wertpapieren beschäftigen sollten,” Corporate Finance, 2026, p. 76
  • Author, “Kryptoderivate” and “Vertragsgestaltung der Kryptoverwahrung,” and co-author, “Digitaler Finanzmarkt: das DLT Pilot Regime,” Recht des digitalen Kapitalmarkts, 1st edition, Nomos, 2025, pp. 250, 330 and 464
  • Co-author, Eurex Clearing AG white paper, “The Role of Central Counterparties in a DLT Environment,” 2025
  • Co-author, “DLT-basierter Kapitalmarkt – Eine Analyse des Reifegrades anhand der ersten beiden Blockchain-basierten digitalen Anleihen der KfW,” Perspektive Regulatorik und Vertragswerk, 2025, p. 43
  • Author, “DLT-Pilot-Regime: Basis für zukünftige Marktinfrastruktur,” Börsen-Zeitung special supplement “Finanzplatz Frankfurt,” March 2025
  • Author, “Kryptoderivate,” Finanzderivate Rechtshandbuch, 5th edition, Nomos, 2023, p. 467
  • Co-author with A.-M. Sahm, “Digitaler Kapitalmarkt – Nächster Meilenstein: EU DLT Pilot Regime,” Der Betrieb special supplement 2022, p. 48

Baker McKenzie Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH von Rechtsanwälten und Steuerberatern is registered with the Local Court of Frankfurt/Main (registered seat) HRB 123975. It is associated with Baker & McKenzie International, a Verein organized under the laws of Switzerland.

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