Coinbase Hires SEC Counsel in Regulatory Role

The former counsel for Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Commissioner Elad Roisman has left the agency to join Coinbase.

Thaya Knight’s last day at the SEC was Friday, she wrote on LinkedIn. Her role at Coinbase as a senior public policy manager entails watching the regulatory landscape, which companies expect to evolve in 2022.

“What we want to do as Coinbase is make sure that we’re raising our hand when we feel the rules of the road are not clear,” Coinbase President Emilie Choi said at the Bloomberg Financial Innovation Summit last month.

Knight worked for about a year as the counsel for Roisman, who was appointed to the SEC by then-President Donald Trump in 2018. Roisman said in a statement last month that he intended to resign by the end of January.  

Before working for Roisman, Knight spent about a year as senior counsel for policy and regulation for the Federal Housing Finance Agency. 

She was also previously counsel to SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, who has been critical of the agency’s failure to approve a spot bitcoin ETF.   

Knight declined to comment on her move. A spokesperson for Coinbase did not immediately return a request for comment.

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