After only four months in the position, “Crypto Dad” Chris Giancarlo is stepping down from BlockFi’s board of directors, according to a recent press release. No reason for Giancarlo’s departure has yet been provided, though he apparently will continue to provide strategic counsel to the firm in an advisory role.
Fast facts
- Ellen-Blair Chube, Managing Director and Client Service Officer at global financial services firm William Blair, will be replacing him.
- BlockFi, a U.S. crypto lending platform, faces a slew of legal troubles at present; four separate states — including New Jersey — have ordered the platform to stop offering new BlockFi Interest Earning Accounts to their residents due to alleged breaches of respective securities law. The firm has warned it may be forced to cease offering the accounts worldwide if the state-based issues are not resolved quickly.
- The firm faced another setback recently when lead investor Third Point LLC pulled out of a funding round valued at nearly US$5 billion just as it was being finalized.
- Giancarlo earned the nickname “Crypto Dad” during his tenure as chairman of the U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission for his progressive stance on crypto regulation. He is also the founder of the Digital Dollar Foundation which advocates for the creation of a central bank digital currency for the U.S.
- In a recent interview with Forkast.News, Giancarlo called for greater U.S. government involvement in the creation of a CBDC or else be left behind by other economies as they developed the technology. “The United States needs to be involved now if we have an expectation that our values will be built into future money,” Giancarlo said. “Now’s the time to get into the debate over the future of money and make sure those values, not just privacy, but values of free enterprise, of free speech, of democracy are built into the future of money.”