Former CFTC chief and blockchain advocate Christopher Giancarlo has joined the team at stablecoin issuer Paxos

What’s new? Former chief of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Christopher Giancarlo has joined the board of directors of the fintech company Paxos, which issues its own USDP stablecoin and PYUSD stablecoin for payment company PayPal on the Ethereum and Solana blockchains. Paxos CEO and co-founder Charles Cascarilla notes that Giancarlo is “at the forefront of advocating for blockchain to improve the infrastructure of our financial system.”

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What else is known? Giancarlo is a lawyer and former senior executive at a number of companies and a member of the Republican Party. He served as one of the five CFTC commissioners from June 2014 to April 2019. Under Donald Trump’s presidency, he was appointed chairman of the CFTC in early 2017, where he pushed for the regulator to recognize the digitalization of markets.

He has also served as legal counsel to Willkie Farr & Gallagher, chairman of Common Securitization Solutions, senior advisor to eToro, a brokerage that provides cryptocurrency trading services among other things, and director of crypto lending platform BlockFi, which went bankrupt following a massive deposit outflow amid the collapse of several other industry companies in 2022.

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Giancarlo is a well-known advocate of blockchain technology and founder of the Digital Dollar project to explore the possibility of creating a central bank digital currency (CBDC), a digital dollar controlled by the US Federal Reserve.

In addition, Giancarlo wrote the book “CryptoDad: The Fight for the Future of Money”, where he described his own views on the future of the world economy, and in 2022 became a Knight of the French National Order of Merit. At the time, French Ambassador to the US Philippe Etienne noted the former regulator’s “understanding of financial markets and the potentials of crypto finance.”

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Charles Cascarilla noted that Giancarlo’s “insights will support us as we expand our position as a leader in regulated digital asset market structure and stablecoin innovation.”

“Paxos has established itself as the leader in bridging traditional and digital asset markets by introducing regulated solutions that are safe for institutions and consumers. I’m honored to join Paxos’s board and be a part of innovation in the financial sector,” Giancarlo said in a statement.

Paxos’ products and platform are regulated by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS). In addition to Giancarlo, the company’s board of directors includes another former official, ex-New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley.

Earlier this year, US crypto exchange Coinbase engaged former UK finance minister George Osborne as an advisor.