MiCA: in the face of French complexity, Malta establishes itself as a leader in Europe

Arnaud Touati is an Avocat and co-founder of Hashtag Avocats, a Paris-based law firm dedicated to digital and business law, which he founded in 2015 under the name Alto Avocats before rebranding in 2019. His practice focuses on new technologies, with specific expertise in blockchain, crypto-assets, NFTs, Web3, artificial intelligence, and data privacy (GDPR). He advises startups, scale-ups, and established companies on regulatory strategy, intellectual property, corporate structuring, fundraising, and tokenisation projects. In April 2023, he also founded LawForCode, a structure providing legal, accounting, and tax services to Web3 entrepreneurs. His stated approach positions legal compliance as a design-stage consideration rather than a retrospective constraint, applied specifically to regulatory, tax, and accounting dimensions of Web3 projects.

Touati holds a Master I in business law from Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, a Master II in business law from Université Paris II Panthéon-Assas, and an LLM from Northwestern University, where he also attended courses at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management. Prior to founding his own firm, he worked at investment bank Oddo and at several international law firms in Paris, including Dewey & LeBoeuf, Linklaters, Weil Gotshal & Manges, Eversheds, and AWP. He teaches at Paris-Saclay and Blockchain Business School, and contributes legal analysis on artificial intelligence and intellectual property as a columnist for the Journal du Net.