Investing large amounts of capital in digital assets presents a set of challenges not typically found in more traditional markets.
The cryptocurrency market is not only highly volatile and risky, but the rapidly changing nature of digital assets makes it difficult to know what to invest in, what to avoid and where to place your money. Large-scale digital transactions also raise additional security concerns.
Given these challenges, working with a trusted and highly knowledgeable advisor is essential. Spear’s selection of the best cryptocurrency and digital asset advisers highlights top experts in an industry that can be notoriously difficult to navigate.
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Related
- The best cryptocurrency and digital asset advisers: the complete list
- Methodology: how we choose our recommendations
- The best cryptocurrency and digital asset advisers: some names to know
- Contact us
The best cryptocurrency and digital asset advisers: the complete list
Methodology: how we choose our recommendations
Each year, the Spear’s Research Unit reassesses and refreshes its rankings of the leading providers in each sector by gathering data from and about the advisers and firms themselves, assessing submission forms, collating nominations, carrying out peer reviews, reviewing data from third-party sources, gathering references and recommendations, canvassing experts and conducting hundreds of interviews.
Advisers are evaluated using a proprietary scoring system that assigns different weightings to certain attributes. These scores feed directly into each new set of rankings in the Spear’s Indices. Each of these indices are published first online (according to the research calendar) and then in print. Print publication takes the form of the annual Spear’s 500 directory, which includes the top advisers in every index.
[See also: A guide to the Spear’s 500: Everything you need to know]
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Each featured adviser is profiled on spears500.com. The site allows users to search the Spear’s database of more than 4,000 entities to find one (or more) to meet their specific requirements by filtering for specific attributes such as an adviser’s location, their specialist expertise and information about their client base.
The best cryptocurrency advisers: some names to know
James Brockhurst
- Focus: Crypto asset structuring
- Position: Partner
- Firm: Forsters
- Rank: Top Recommended
Forsters partner James Brockhurst is widely regarded for his expertise in digital assets.
A private client lawyer by practice, Brockhurst also advises a host of UHNWs and family offices on tax, succession planning and governance. As clients are increasingly viewing cryptocurrencies and digital assets as an investment opportunity, he finds that his practices are intersecting more and more; recently, Brockhurst has advised on the situs of cryptocurrencies for succession purposes.
Read James Brockhurst’s full profile on Spears500.com
Anatoly Crachilov
- Focus: Digital asset investment management
- Position: Partner
- Firm: Nickel Digital Asset Management
- Rank: Top Recommended
Anatoly Crachilov is founding partner and CEO of Nickel Digital Asset Management. As the UK’s first FCA-regulated investment manager to specialise in digital assets, the firm has grown to serve more than 100 investors worldwide, consisting of UHNW and HNW families as well as a number of family offices.
Its staff include alumni from the likes of JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse.
Read Anatoly Crachilov’s full profile on Spears500.com
Jill Lorimer
- Focus: Regulatory investigations
- Position: Partner
- Firm: Kingsley Napley
- Rank: Top Recommended
A partner in Kinglsey Napley’s criminal litigation team, Jill Lorimer specialises in commercial litigation and boasts an extensive track record in advising firms and individuals under regulatory scrutiny by the FCA. She also has a broad fraud practice, and has been involved in ‘many of the largest Serious Fraud Office investigations’.
Lorimer is also a key cog in Kingsley Napley’s crypto assets team, which offers clients interested in the UK crypto market a full suite of services across multiple disciplines, including corporate, commercial, regulatory and dispute resolution.
Read Jill Lorimer’s full profile on Spears500.com
Racheal Muldoon
- Focus: High-states asset structuring
- Position: Partner
- Firm: Charles Russell Speechlys
- Rank: Top Recommended
From tax structuring and intellectual property to estate planning and commercial litigation, Racheal Muldoon has a broad practice but a particular focus on digital assets.
Before joining Charles Russel Speechlys in 2025, Muldoon was a barrister for almost 10 years at Maitland Chambers and was one of the earliest litigators in the digital assets space. In 2022, she was the first to secure a freezing injunction against misappropriated NFTs, and she represented the Securities Commission of the Bahamas in the insolvency of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX.
Read Racheal Muldoon’s full profile on Spears500.com
Contact us
- Click here to order a print copy of The Spear’s 500.
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- If you have missed calendar deadlines for our research cycles in 2025, you can still register your interest for updates about upcoming research and rankings.
