Ex-SEC Chair Joins Crypto Firm; Coinbase Japan Goes Live

Jay Clayton, who served as the chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission under former President Donald Trump, has joined the advisory board of Fireblocks, a digital asset custodian that raised $310 million at a $2 billion valuation last month from investors including Sequoia Capital, Spark Capital and Coatue Management.  

Clayton is part of a group of former financial regulators who have taken on key roles at crypto businesses trying to navigate an increasingly challenging legal landscape. 

Brian Brooks, Acting Comptroller of the Currency under Trump and previously chief legal officer at Coinbase, briefly joined exchange Binance.US as its CEO earlier this year, while former SEC official Brett Redfearn headed Coinbase’s capital markets division between March and July. And J. Christopher Giancarlo, who led the Commodity Futures Trading Commission under Trump, is on the board of directors for crypto lending platform BlockFi.