Crypto trading surveillance start-up Solidus Labs said Thursday it had hired the former head of the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to head up its regulatory team.
Kathy Kraninger, who served as the CFPB’s director from 2018 to 2021, will oversee Solidus Labs’ regulatory strategy and build a global team to work with governments looking more closely at digital asset markets and how to introduce regulatory frameworks.
Solidus makes market surveillance tools to flag manipulation across cryptocurrency trading platforms. This ability is seen as crucial to helping U.S. regulators finally approve a cryptocurrency exchange-traded fund (ETF).
Kraninger is the latest Trump administration regulator to join a cryptocurrency company. Former bank regulator Brian Brooks was appointed the CEO of Binance U.S. in May, while Chris Giancarlo, the former head of the U.S. derivatives regulator, is an investor in Solidus and the founder of the Digital Dollar Project, which supports the development of a digital dollar.
Kraninger had previously held senior government positions at the Office of Management and Budget, the Departments of Homeland Security and Transportation and in both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives.
She was asked to resign when President Joe Biden took office.
In May, Solidus Labs announced that it had raised $20 million in a Series A investment round led by Evolution Equity Partners and that included Hanaco Ventures, which led the startup’s $3.75 seed round in early 2019.
Other investors in the Series A round included FTX and VC Avon Ventures, which is affiliated with Fidelity Investments. Several former regulators also joined the round, including Commodity Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) alumni Chris Giancarlo and Daniel Gorfine, and former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Commissioner Troy Paredes.
Source: Coindesk
