Chris Daniel is the Chair of Paul Hastings’ market-leading Global Fintech & Payments Group and is a partner in the Corporate Department. As the founder of the firm’s Band 1 and Tier 1-ranked Fintech team, Chris is recognized as one of the country's leading attorneys in payment systems law, including electronic payments, mobile payments, virtual and digital currencies, and money transmission. 

Recognized as a “Fintech MVP” by Law360 and ranked Band 1 by Chambers, Chris is one of the most sought-after payments and cryptocurrency practitioners in the market. His unique strength lies in his ability to blend his financial services regulatory focus with unparalleled transactional experience in the Fintech industry. 

Chris has significant experience advising clients on issues related to investments into payment systems companies and banks, the creation of settlement networks, transactional matters involving payment systems companies, global money transmission, and anti-money laundering issues associated with payments. He regularly practices before every state banking department, all federal banking agencies, FinCEN, and OFAC, and his client base generally consists of:

• Private equity and venture capital firms.
• Fintech startups as they develop and commercialize their product offerings.
• Cryptocurrency companies along the entire range of crypto offerings from blockchain development to crypto exchanges, DeFi and DApps, and ecosystem development.
• Legacy depositories, payments companies, and card networks who are innovating or contracting with fintech companies.
• Trusted Platform Companies, for which financial services contribute a significant percentage of their business.

Chris regularly practices before every state banking department, all federal banking agencies, FinCEN, and OFAC. His representative experience includes:

Fintech & Payments

• MoneyGram International in its $1.8 billion acquisition by Madison Dearborn.
• Visa in their acquisition of Pismo for $1 billion cash.
• GTCR in its $18 billion acquisition of Worldpay.
• GTCR in its $3.5 billion acquisition of AssetMark Financial Holdings.
• Banc of California in its acquisition of Global Payroll Gateway’s payments platform and technology, as well as the company’s wholly-owned subsidiary Deepstack Technologies.
• Searchlight Capital Partners in connection with Rêv Worldwide’s purchase of the Netspend consumer business from Global Payments in an all-cash transaction valued at $1 billion.
• AvidXchange with regulatory restructuring work related to their state money transmitter licenses and their upsized $660 million IPO.
• AvidXchange in designing and launching a new iteration of its factoring program, Invoice Accelerator 2.0.
• Integrum in its acquisition of MerchantE, a leading end-to-end payment platform, from Cielo, one of the world’s largest payments companies.
• Bilt with regards to its “Bilt Rewards” service.

Blockchain & Digital Assets

• Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of FTX and its 100+ affiliates in one of the largest Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings in history, valued at over $32 billion.
• Voyager in connection with the first bankruptcy of a licensed money transmitter in history.
• Coinbase on a wide variety of regulatory matters since its inception in 2013 and ongoing product launches and regulatory questions.
• Circle since its inception in 2014 on matters related to its issuance of the USDC stablecoin and the launch of a regulated crypto yield product offered as a treasury solution for enterprises and corporate treasury leaders.
• Gemini since 2015 in its creation of the Gemini Dollar and the related compliance position.
• Binance.US on a variety of regulatory issues and product development, as well as commercial arrangements with banks, financial institutions, and technology services providers.
• Uphold on regulatory matters before the FINRA and the SEC for approval to acquire JNK Securities, a U.S. broker-dealer.
• RECUR on gambling and regulatory compliance issues in connection with its NFT collectible activities, prior to the client's partnership launch with another company.

• Band 1, Payments & Lending (Chambers USA: Fintech Legal, 2019-2025)
• Band 2, Blockchain & Cryptocurrencies (Chambers USA: Fintech Legal, 2025)
• Leading Individual, Fintech (The Legal 500 USA, 2019-2024)
• Most Effective Dealmaker (Southeastern Legal Awards, 2024)
• Fintech MVP (Law360, 2023)
• Included each year in the annual listing of The Best Lawyers in America

• University of Kentucky College of Law, J.D., 1995 (magna cum laude, Articles Editor for The Journal of Natural Resources and Environmental Law)
• Previously served in the U.S. Air Force from 1987-1992, where he was an Instructor Pilot for the Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training Program
• Wake Forest University, B.A., 1987 (cum laude, with honors in Economics, Member of the 1986 NCAA Championship Golf Team)