Former acting head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Brian Brooks, is outlining his goals as the incoming CEO of the crypto exchange Binance.US.
In a new interview with CNBC, Brooks says a top priority is achieving industry-wide regulatory clarity in the US.
“Binance.US was set up as a separate company specifically because the US has its own regulatory regime around these kinds of assets. Obviously, there are tens of millions of Americans who want access to this stuff.
And as I tried to show at the OCC, we need better clarity in this country to let people productively invest in this new important technology. One of the things I’m going to do with Binance.US is to help continue to shape that dialogue.”
As the price of Bitcoin (BTC) tumbles, Brooks also comments on the volatility of the benchmark cryptocurrency.
“If you look at year-to-date returns on Bitcoin, it is significantly net positive, better than the stock market and has traded between $50,000 and $70,000 for a pretty long time compared to two years ago when it might fall 50% in a week and fall 20% in another week.
I don’t see the volatility as extreme as some people say. We are trying to build a fundamental technology here.”
While serving at the OCC, Brooks was known as the “Crypto Comptroller” because of his positive attitude towards digital assets. During his term, the bureau released guidance clarifying that banks can offer cryptocurrency custody services and use stablecoins for payment activities.
Brooks is replacing Catherine Coley as CEO of Binance.US on May 1st.
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