Crypto Council for Innovation hires government insiders to build leadership team

The Crypto Council for Innovation, or CCI, a crypto advocacy group that establishes dialogues with governments and regulatory agencies on the benefits of crypto, has hired two new experts with experience in financial regulatory policy in the United States.

In a Tuesday announcement, the CCI said Linda Jeng, a former Federal Reserve Board and Treasury Department employee, and Brett Quick, former deputy chief of staff for House Financial Services Committee chair Emeritus Spencer Bachus, would be joining the council in support of its policy and regulatory affairs team. Jeng will be the council’s chief global regulatory officer and general counsel, having previously worked in a similar role at the Circle- and Coinbase-founded Centre Consortium, while Quick will join as the CCI’s head of government affairs for North America.

Formed in April 2021, the CCI’s supporters include Coinbase, Gemini, Fidelity Digital Assets, Paradigm, Ribbit Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and Block. Sheila Warren, the former head of blockchain and distributed ledger technology at the World Economic Forum, joined the CCI as CEO in February. Since that time, the CCI announced former U.S. Senator Cory Gardner would take a position in the advocacy group’s leadership team.

According to the CCI, its current focus has been supporting lawmakers on issues related to evading sanctions using cryptocurrencies, the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets, or MiCA, law, which aims to harmonize regulations for crypto among EU member states, and legislation introduced concerning digital assets in the United States. U.S. lawmakers in both the House of Representatives and Senate have put forth different bills on how to handle crypto-related products in the country, from stablecoins to determining where to draw the regulatory lines between the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Related: WEF 2022: Serious people will stay in crypto despite market setbacks, says CCI CEO Sheila Warren

We applaud the bipartisan leadership of @SenToomey and @SenatorSinema.

With 1 in 5 Americans holding or using crypto, greater regulatory clarity will support the industry's next stage of growth.https://t.co/M71ZD8mqB9

— Crypto Council for Innovation (@crypto_council) July 26, 2022

The CCI hosted a virtual event in July 2021 on Bitcoin (BTC) adoption called “The ₿ Word,” featuring speakers including Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey. Many other crypto policy advocate groups in the U.S. including Coin Center often weigh in on laws and regulations related to digital assets.