2L Kiyan Mohebbizadeh

Navigating the Crypto Current

Kiyan Mohebbizadeh planned to focus on the fast-growing artificial intelligence (AI) sector in law school — until a friend’s phone call during orientation week pushed him to co-found a startup and earn a dual J.D./MBA degree.

“He said, ‘Hey, I’ve been working on a startup where we want to issue corporate bonds on public blockchains in the European Union and I need some help,’” Mohebbizadeh says. “So I went through the first year and a half of law school working on this digital securities legal tech startup.”

That detour also led him to win the first fintech crypto legal “hackathon” for law students, presented by the firm Paul Hastings. Students identify a regulatory problem in the area and create a potential solution — with a 10-page paper ahead of the event, a 10-minute presentation to Paul Hastings fintech lawyers, and a 10-minute Q&A.

AROUND THE BLOCK: A national competition winner, 2L Kiyan Mohebbizadeh has become a rising expert on blockchain technology and the impact of AI on its future. Photo by Darius Riley

Portrait orientation cropped outdoor photograph close-up view of Kiyan Mohebbizadeh, a young man with dark black curly hair who is sitting on a concrete ledge outside and smiling at the camera; He is wearing a dark blue sweatshirt over a collared light sky blue colored shirt, tan/beige colored pants, and dark brown dress shoes with distinct colored patterned socks; The background is a blurred walking pathway with trees and a big wide building behind him

AROUND THE BLOCK: A national competition winner, 2L Kiyan Mohebbizadeh has become a rising expert on blockchain technology and the impact of AI on its future. Photo by Darius Riley

2L Kiyan Mohebbizadeh

Navigating the Crypto Current

Kiyan Mohebbizadeh planned to focus on the fast-growing artificial intelligence (AI) sector in law school — until a friend’s phone call during orientation week pushed him to co-found a startup and earn a dual J.D./MBA degree.

“He said, ‘Hey, I’ve been working on a startup where we want to issue corporate bonds on public blockchains in the European Union and I need some help,’” Mohebbizadeh says. “So I went through the first year and a half of law school working on this digital securities legal tech startup.”

That detour also led him to win the first fintech crypto legal “hackathon” for law students, presented by the firm Paul Hastings. Students identify a regulatory problem in the area and create a potential solution — with a 10-page paper ahead of the event, a 10-minute presentation to Paul Hastings fintech lawyers, and a 10-minute Q&A.

Working with University of Chicago student Yi Qu and Georgetown Law student Joey Yu, Mohebbizadeh’s team imagined reinventing stock ownership and trading by moving them to the blockchain — exploring what it would look like to tokenize a traditional security and present it as a digital token, rather than a certificate or a centralized ledger.

The team analyzed the broad implications, whether there was a gain for investors from digitizing their holdings, available processes based on current legal structuring, and the steps needed to enable a digital financial market.

“I think the judges appreciated that we really got down to a deep, detailed layer, and then also incorporated the broader policy implications”

“I think the judges appreciated that we really got down to a deep, detailed layer, and then also incorporated the broader policy implications,” Mohebbizadeh says.

Using blockchain technology for securities lets them interact or transact directly with one another rather than using third parties like brokers, he adds, noting that it would increase transparency by letting investors trace an asset in real time rather than relying on a contractual relationship.

“You don’t actually own your stocks when you buy a stock from Charles Schwab. Schwab owns a lot of stock, and says they own some for you,” Mohebbizadeh says. “Our policy proposal was to shift financial market infrastructure to be on the blockchain, so that each asset is represented by a token you take to the court to settle disputes and trade with, and this token is what the issuers, intermediaries, and retail investors hold and trade with.”

He remains interested in AI and is now researching so-called AI agents — software programs powered by large language models that can interact with people, absorb information, and make autonomous decisions — probing who’s responsible for the agent’s actions.

“One of the classic examples that’s being discussed right now is you type to an AI agent, ‘I want 10 bananas, and order them as soon as possible.’ And then 10 bundles of bananas — 100 pounds of bananas — show up at your door,” Mohebbizadeh says. “Is it the grocery store’s problem for not checking if you really wanted 100 pounds of bananas? Is it the AI agent’s problem? Or is it your problem for not verifying it? How can you assign agency to a piece of software, and the liability that’s involved with that?” — Gwyneth K. Shaw

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