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Long story short, I'm a mid-level at a V20 and have an offer to go in-house doing primarily Crypto.

Some potential red flags:

(1) Hot and potentially soon overcrowded practice without any equilibrium between partners, seniors, midlevels and juniors (or company equivalent)
(2) Salary is not great....it's tilted toward equity
(3) Unknown long-term viability of crypto itself, though I mostly feel okay about this

But:

(1) I'm fucking sick of biglaw and this is a ticket out
(2) Firms are investing in crypto groups, so maybe in a crisis could return to biglaw for a time

Thoughts?

Currently at a V-50 firm. The firm definitely views this as a growing practice area that spans a number of different specialties. Firm is investing accordingly. Communications from the government point to the crypto space as an area of deep concern, especially as it relates to funding rogue states and international criminal organizations. Expect high-profile criminal and civil matters to follow and beefed-up regulation coming from a number of agencies.

With money continuing to flow in on the investment side, I would expect industry players to continue to build out internal legal organizations, as well as turning to firms for advice and handling of government inquiries. As long as the money remains on the investment side, expect the legal side to continue to grow.

The crypto sector is built right in the middle of a highly-regulated space (financial transactions) with little to no legal capabilities. Barring a total 180 from governments worldwide, this will be a growing legal space for many years to come.

You'd really want to posture yourself as a fintech lawyer, more than just a "crypto lawyer." Finance related blockchain technology is quite obviously staying around; the phenomenon of a zillion shitcoins floating around (and the cottage industries that have arisen in its wake) probably won't.

As for going in house at any particular crypto enterprise - my main caution is that there is probably no sector more rife with scams and bullshit. The longevity of crypto as a practice area =/= the viability of any one purported crypto company. I say "purported" because a great many of these companies are basically scams that dress themselves up as crypto companies to sucker dumb money.

Even among the relatively legit ones, the vast vast majority are going to fail, so I'd be extremely dubious of taking equity as a substantial portion of comp.

I'm sure you're already aware of all this to some extent. So I'm not advising against taking this offer, I'm just recommending extreme caution.

This is the OP. Thank you both immensely. Extremely helpful and appreciate the counsel. I know I have to be thoughtful and not merely take the first exit ramp out of biglaw. ... sounds intriguing, though

What kind of TC are we talking about here? Pre-IPO? Hard to tell if it’s worth the gamble without sketching out the offer