Former OCC leader and Binance US CEO Brian Brooks joins Bitfury as chief executive

On November 4, crypto mining firm Bitfury announced that it had hired Brian Brooks as CEO, replacing founder and long-time chief executive Valery Vavilov.

Vavilov will become "Chief Vision Officer" as well as chairman of Bitfury's board. 

In addition to mining and ASIC manufacturing, Bitfury has operations in blockchain analytics, network security and enterprise software. Founded in 2011 in Amsterdam, the firm is one of the older players in the market.

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Brooks most recently headed Binance.US, a position that he left in August amid no small amount of controversy, with reports of conflict with global Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao over a U.S. funding round. 

Prior to Binance, Brooks served a 7-month tenure as acting Comptroller of the Currency, presiding over the leading regulator for national banks in the U.S. In that role, he pushed out a number of new authorizations for the integration of cryptocurrency in the banking system, including several fintech charters for banking firms. 

The brief tenure endeared Brooks to the crypto world even as it provoked hostility among a number of lawmakers, particularly Democrats in the House of Representatives, who accused him of overstepping his authority in the interests of an industry to which he would soon return.

About Author

Kollen Post is a senior reporter at The Block, covering all things policy and geopolitics from Washington, DC. That includes legislation and regulation, securities law and money laundering, cyber warfare, corruption, CBDCs, and blockchain’s role in the developing world. He speaks Russian and Arabic. You can send him leads at [email protected].