Abstract

This article examines the decisive role of expert evidence, guided and deployed by specialist legal counsel, in arbitrations involving cryptocurrencies and other digital assets. As blockchain infrastructure, tokenomics and smart contracts create technical, jurisdictional, and evidential complexity, arbitration has emerged as the forum of choice for resolving contractual digital asset disputes. Arbitral tribunals rely on counsel and multidisciplinary experts to bridge the gap between code and contract and to convert on-chain data into clear, actionable findings. The article offers practical guidance on selecting and managing technical, financial and regulatory experts, structuring their instructions and using procedural tools such as joint statements and concurrent evidence to focus testimony on genuinely disputed issues. It addresses fact specific considerations, including tracing models, custodial and non-custodial wallets, privacy coins and obfuscation techniques and the use of commercial blockchain analytics. The authors also address the relevance of subject-matter specialists in reaching robust damages assessments, outlining valuation challenges posed by volatility, liquidity, token design and regulatory uncertainty, and they identify how different methodologies can support this work from market reconstruction and hybrid models to sensitivity analyses and event studies. Emphasising early engagement and close coordination between specialist counsel and forensic and quantum experts, the article argues that expert evidence is foundational to achieving fair and enforceable outcomes that are both commercially and technically sound. It concludes that success in digital asset arbitration turns on integrating deep technical fluency with legal strategy, across preparation, pleadings, evidence, hearing and enforcement.

This paper will be part of the TDM Special Issue on "Cryptocurrencies and Other Digital Assets in Arbitration". More information here www.transnational-dispute-management.com/news.asp?key=2080