Former U.S. Regulator Brooks Named CEO of Crypto Miner Bitfury

(Bloomberg) -- Bitfury Group Ltd., a provider of cryptocurrency mining equipment and a slew of various related services, named Brian Brooks, a former U.S. regulator and head of Binance’s American operations, as chief executive officer. 

“Excited and humbled to join” Bitfury, Brooks said on Twitter Thursday. In late October, he replaced Valery Vavilov, who is stepping back to focus on strategic initiatives as chairman of the board and chief vision officer of the Amsterdam-based private company.

Brooks resigned from Binance.US after only a few months earlier this year, citing “differences over strategic direction.” A former Acting Comptroller of the Currency late in the Trump administration, Brooks joined Binance.US in May. Binance.US shares a name with Binance Holdings Ltd., the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange. 

From 2018 to 2020, Brooks served as chief legal officer of Coinbase Global, Inc. And from 2014 to 2018, he served as as general counsel of Fannie Mae, a $3.2 trillion asset public company that is the world’s largest investor in single-family and multifamily mortgage assets.

At Bitfury, Brooks will “lead the 10-year-old crypto unicorn as it launches a new funding round,” among other priorities, the company said in a press release. Bitfury may be considering going public, according to various reports.

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