Bitcoin mining and crypto company BitFury has announced that Brian Brooks, former Binance.US CEO and Comptroller of the Currency, has been appointed CEO.
“BitFury is an established leader in the digital asset industry, renowned for its sustained research and development efforts and best-in-class proprietary technologies,” Brooks said in a statement.
“As the adoption of—and use cases for—Bitcoin, other crypto assets, and their underlying blockchains continues to accelerate worldwide, the company’s diversified portfolio has immense opportunity and is well-positioned for long-term success,” he added.
Brooks will lead the company as it launches a new funding round, as well as increasing its mining business.
Brooks’ enthusiasm for the appointment was shared by Valery Vavilov, BitFury’s founder.
“With an eye toward the next phase in our evolution, we are thrilled to welcome Brian to the company. Brian is a respected executive and thought leader with deep regulatory, digital asset and capital markets expertise who shares BitFury’s vision for a decentralized peer-to-peer economy,” Vavilov said in a statement.
Before this appointment, Brooks’ “deep regulatory expertise” was tested during his brief stint as the CEO of Binance.US.
Brian Brooks and Binance
After his time as the Comptroller of the Currency, Brooks pivoted to the crypto industry as he took up the role of Binance.US CEO.
After just three months in the role, Brooks resigned amid an alleged battle over independence from Binance CEO, Changpeng Zhao.
Given Brooks’ prominence in the crypto world, the very brief stint and sudden resignation raised eyebrows. In August, reports suggested he was ousted by Zhao over conflicts relating to how to navigate the company’s many regulatory controversies.
Still, Brooks has enjoyed a broadly positive image in the crypto industry, thanks to his time acting as Coinbase’s top lawyer, as well as crypto-friendly policies he put in place while running the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.