Hiring roundup: Former LA mayor joins Coinbase

Antonio Villaraigosa, the former mayor of Los Angeles, has been hired as a policy adviser for Coinbase.

Villaraigosa, who served as the mayor of LA between 2005 and 2013, will join the cryptocurrency exchange’s global advisory council.

Faryar Shirzad, the chief policy officer at Coinbase, wrote in a post on X that Villaraigosa will advise the leadership team at Coinbase to advance “economic freedom around the world.” 

“When 18% of America is underbanked, including 25% of Black & Hispanic households, it means the traditional financial system doesn’t work for everyone. It’s time to update the system,” Shirzad wrote.

According to the LA Times, Villaraigosa will not lobby on behalf of the global exchange but will only advise the company on developing a fair and robust regulatory framework so that it can provide services for US-based customers, noting that crypto participants “need regulatory protection.”

Paradigm special counsel leaves 

Rodrigo Seira, the special counsel of the crypto-focused venture capital firm Paradigm, has resigned and returned to Cooley LLP, a law firm where he previously worked.

Seira served at Paradigm for two and a half years and helped spearhead the company’s policy lab. He was also a founding member of blockchain and crypto-focused law firm DLX Law.

Former Citibank executive joins BitGo

Brett Reeves, a former Citibank executive who has been in the banking industry for over two decades, will join BitGo, a scalable wallet solution, to expand EMEA Sales.

Reeves most recently held the position of head of business development at Bequant, a digital asset prime broker. He previously held roles at Citibank, Nomura and Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore.

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