Former SEC Chair Jay Clayton Joins Crypto Firm Fireblocks

Crypto custody provider Fireblocks has tapped former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Jay Clayton as a member of its board of advisors.

Clayton will work with Fireblocks on addressing market structure and customer needs, including support and deployment for the firm's security technology, the company announced on Thursday. Clayton, who stepped down from his role at the SEC in December, is also on the board of Apollo Global Management and an adviser to One River Digital Asset Management.

Fireblocks provides software security solutions to custody digital assets, including multi-party computation (MPC) services. The company also provides tools to speed up or otherwise streamline digital asset transaction settlement.

The move comes a month after Fireblocks raised more than $300 million in a Series D funding round that valued the company at $2 billion. DRW, Sequoia Capital, Spark Capital, Stripes and Coatue participated in the funding round.

Fireblocks counts the digital bank Revolut, BNY Mellon and the yet-to-be-launched diem stablecoin as some of its high-profile clients.

A number of former top government officials have been taking on roles in the digital asset sector since returning to private life. Former Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chair Chris Giancarlo became an adviser to both the Chamber of Digital Commerce and BlockFi, and is one of the leaders of the Digital Dollar Foundation.

Some of those post-public service roles have turned out to have been short-lived. Former Acting Comptroller of the Currency Brian Brooks briefly served as Binance.US's chief executive, while former SEC Director of Trading and Markets Brett Redfearn spent a few months at Coinbase.