The White House will pick another crypto-native banking professional for a prominent regulatory position, according to reports: Jonathan Gould, who formerly worked as chief legal officer at Bitfury, has been selected to lead the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
Gould’s position would see him lead the regulator that monitors large national banks.
The news was reported by Politico and Punchbowl News, citing a document sent to the Senate on Tuesday. Gould did not immediately respond to Decrypt’s request for him to confirm the reports.
Gould is currently a partner at the Jones Day law firm, and apart from his previous role at Bitfury, he has also worked at BlackRock and as the senior deputy comptroller and chief counsel at the OCC, according to his LinkedIn page.
Tech firm Bitfury produces Bitcoin mining equipment and describes itself as the world’s “full-service blockchain technology company.”
The Trump Administration has selected a large number of tech and crypto-friendly individuals to regulate the financial space.
On Tuesday, news dropped that former CFTC commissioner Brian Quintenz was nominated to rejoin the agency as its chief.
Quintenz currently heads crypto policy at the crypto arm of venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz, or a16z.
President Donald Trump campaigned to help the digital asset and AI sector and received financial backing from bigwigs in both industries.
Now, top regulators are expected to take a more friendly approach to both burgeoning industries.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has even launched a crypto task force aimed at developing new regulation for the industry—and cleaning up the “mess” that the SEC created under President Joe Biden, as Commissioner Hester Peirce wrote last week.
Edited by Andrew Hayward
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https://decrypt.co/305695/trump-occ-pick-bitcoin-miner-bitfury-exec
