US Chamber of Commerce Veteran Joins Square

Payments startup Square has hired Julie Stitzel, former Vice President of the US Chamber of Commerce Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness (CCMC), as a bitcoin policy lead. 

In her role with the Chamber of Commerce, Stitzel led her team in establishing consumer finance and fintech technology. Previously, Stitzel was Managing Director of Policy and Strategic Initiatives for the Chamber Technology Engagement Center (C_TEC). There she directed the development and implementation of policy priorities and represented the center on Capitol Hill.

Prior to C-TEC, she was also senior manager for federal advocacy and policy for Etsy and responsible for directing federal and state legislative campaigns.

Square has become increasingly involved in the digital asset space in recent years. The company began allowing all users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies using its payment app in January 2018. 

Square, which was founded and led by Twitter creator Jack Dorsey, is also one of several companies that have moved to put bitcoin on its balance sheet. Square purchased more than 8,000 BTC between October 2020 and February 2021. The company’s current bitcoin holdings are worth around $441 million.

In the last several weeks, digital asset companies have been tapping government officials to join their teams. Last week, Binance.US hired Brian Brooks as CEO. Brooks was the head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the nation’s banking regulator.

In late March, Coinbase hired Brett Redfearn, an ex-SEC director in charge of its division of trading and markets to run Coinbase’s capital markets group. Baton, a “blockchain-inspired” startup that uses distributed ledger technology to revolutionize bank-to-bank payments, hired former CFTC Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo earlier in April to act as a Senior Advisor.