Former CFTC Chair, Christopher Giancarlo, has joined BlockFi's Board of Directors. According to a press release, Giancarlo will provide guidance to the company's leadership "on strategic matters." Giancarlo worked as the 13th Chairman of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) from 2014 to 2019.
Subscribe to our Telegram channel to stay up to date on the latest crypto and blockchain news.
He says it is "critical" for the financial industry to consider how to adapt digital innovations as the adoption of cryptocurrencies accelerates.
In June last year, Giancarlo rejected to name XRP a security. In an opinion article, he wrote that XRP was not an "investment contract" and therefore not a security according to the SEC's Howey test. Giancarlo and his co-author Conrad Bahlke wrote claimed that XRP "cannot be an investment contract as there is no contract or arrangement to speak of between Ripple and the overwhelming majority of XRP holders. To the contrary, the contracts that Ripple has entered into explicitly exclude general XRP holders as third-party beneficiaries."
BlockFi's expansion of Board of Directors comes after the company raised $350 million in a Series D fundraising round that values it at $3 billion, the company announced. The company attracted capital from Bain Capital Ventures, partners of DST Global, Pomp Investments and Tiger Global.
With the investments, the company will expand the current core product offering, including: earning yield on cryptocurrencies, buying and selling crypto directly on BlockFi and originating US dollar loans secured by the value of cryptocurrencies on the platform.
Access more than 50 of the world's financial markets directly from your EXANTE account – including NASDAQ, London Stock Exchange and Tokyo Stock Exchange.