Candidate Profile

My dedication to the digital asset industry stems from its core ethos of individual freedom, my conviction in the power of decentralized and permissionless systems, and crypto’s demonstrated potential to change the world. Through years of experience and challenges, I remain committed to bringing open and permissionless systems to people around the world. My goal in joining the Arbitrum Security Council is to contribute towards its decentralization efforts and help Ethereum remain accessible worldwide as it scales.

I am Ryón Nixon, an attorney, entrepreneur, and investor deeply involved in the digital asset industry. I am from New York City, and earned my undergraduate and law degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles (“UCLA”). My legal experience includes a federal clerkship in the Central District of California, working as an associate in Brubaker Law’s venture capital practice group, where I collaborated with some of Silicon Valley's top startups.

I started my law firm, Horizons Law & Consulting Group, in 2016 to focus my practice on the digital asset industry as an external general counsel. One of my first crypto clients was MyEtherWallet, the first non-custodial wallet on Ethereum. I counseled MyEtherWallet through corporate and transitional matters and its eventual acquisition by Consensys. I acted as Solana's external General Counsel from its genesis in 2018 through 2021, and I guided them through a highly successful token launch. As I grew my practice, I have worked with other major projects like Synthetix and Akash Network and large crypto funds, like Asymmetric. Beyond legal work, I have been involved in shaping industry-wide policies as a founding member of the Proof of Stake Alliance.

I pride myself on being more than just an attorney. I provide comprehensive commercial advice to my clients in addition to legal advice. As an entrepreneur myself, I am a co-founder of ParagonsDAO, an on-chain gaming guild protocol built from the Parallel ecosystem, and co-founder of Horizons Global and Mugen DAO Advisors, two well-regarded digital asset services providers based in the Cayman Islands.

I also operate Marin Digital Ventures, a family office fund that has invested in over 150 digital asset projects. With my holistic experience as an attorney, co-founder, and investor, my legal and commercial advice reflects my understanding of the perspectives of both projects and investors.

Co-founder to ParagonsDAO; current or former attorney for many projects including Synthetix, Manta (former client), Kwenta, Akash Network, Solana (former client), Quasar, Union, Switchboard, Axelar, Ethos wallet, OlympusDAO (former client), and many more (see https://horizonslaw.io for more client projects).