Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
- Binance.US announced that Brian Brooks, a former Coinbase executive, will take the helm as its CEO.
- "There's a lot of buzz about my former employer, which is well-deserved," Brooks told DealBook Tuesday.
- Prior to Coinbase, Brooks was the Acting Comptroller of the Currency under the Trump administration.
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Binance.US announced that Brian Brooks, a former Coinbase executive, will take the helm as its CEO beginning May this year.
Brooks was the chief legal officer of Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the US which went public via direct listing this month, where he led legal, compliance, internal audit, and government relations functions.
"There's a lot of buzz about my former employer, which is well-deserved," Brooks told DealBook Wednesday. "But it's in everybody's best interest if there's more competition."
Brooks is succeeding Catherine Coley, who assumed her post in 2019, according to her LinkedIn profile.
"This is the company that's most likely to give the biggest incumbent Coinbase a run for its money," Brooks told CoinDesk TV. "It's the best opportunity to build a fully compliant, but product-diversified crypto platform in the U.S., and it's a company that has been, you know, revenue and profit positive since day one because of the resourcing [it] had got at the inception."
Prior to Coinbase, Brooks was the Acting Comptroller of the Currency under the Trump administration. He was dubbed as the "first fintech Comptroller" and "CryptoComptroller" for leading efforts with regard to stablecoins, digital asset custody, and the development of blockchain payment networks. He stepped down from public service on January 14.
Brooks told DealBook that, as chief executive, managing reputation is his biggest concern as well as building trust with regulators. He also said Binance.US can learn from its rivals such as Coinbase and Kraken.
"I am eager to work closely with industry participants and policymakers to develop an enduring regulatory framework that enables Americans to reap the benefits of decentralized finance for generations to come," he said in a statement.
Binance Holdings in March 2020 was investigated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission over concerns that it permitted US users to trade derivatives.
Binance, founded in 2017, is the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange and licenses its matching engine and wallet technologies to Binance.US, founded in 2019. Binance.US is currently the third-ranked cryptocurrency exchange in the country.
Binance.US, riding a wave of cryptocurrency momentum, is seeing its business rapidly expand. In the first quarter of 2021, the company quadrupled its number of registered users. Its daily trading volume also rose to $1.4 billion. Binance.US has thus far launched in 43 states across the US and has grown its set of listings to over 50 digital assets.