Founder Valery Vavilov to Become Chairman and Chief Vision Officer
Bitfury Group, the Bitcoin mining and crypto tech pioneer, announced that Brian P. Brooks, former United States Acting Comptroller of the Currency, has joined the Company as Chief Executive Officer, effective October 29, 2021. Mr. Brooks will lead the 10-year-old crypto unicorn as it launches a new funding round, increases the growth of its mining business with a revolutionary new microchip design and new global data center locations, and scales a portfolio of innovative businesses that grew out of the Company’s heritage as an early Bitcoin leader. Valery Vavilov, Founder of Bitfury, will become Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Vision Officer, where he will continue his focus on developing over-the-horizon hardware and software innovations for Bitfury as it builds the infrastructure for a tokenized global economy.
Mr. Vavilov said, “Since our founding, Bitfury has pioneered innovative blockchain hardware and software infrastructure, and today represents a comprehensive platform addressing and enhancing the full digital asset value chain. With an eye toward the next phase in our evolution, we are thrilled to welcome Brian to the Company. Brian is a respected executive and thought leader with deep regulatory, digital asset and capital markets expertise who shares Bitfury’s vision for a decentralized peer-to peer economy. Together, we will continue to execute Bitfury’s growth strategy and help businesses, governments, organizations, and individuals leverage the blockchain to solve the most pressing challenges of today and tomorrow.”
Since its inception in 2011, Bitfury has developed into a full-service blockchain technology company and one of the world’s leading providers of large-scale digital asset infrastructure solutions. Bitfury’s platform of emerging technologies businesses includes its self-mining operations, with seven ultra-low-cost energy sites globally alongside its new United-States based Cipher Mining subsidiary; hardware products for high-performance computing needs, including seven generations of its own specialized micro-chips and next generation immersion cooling systems; and software and enterprise blockchain solutions spanning security, payments, and applications for the creator economy, among others.
Mr. Brooks said, “Bitfury is an established leader in the digital asset industry, renowned for its sustained research and development efforts and best-in-class proprietary technologies. As the adoption of – and use cases for – Bitcoin, other cryptoassets, and their underlying blockchains continues to accelerate worldwide, the Company’s diversified portfolio has immense opportunity and is well positioned for long-term success. I look forward to working alongside Valery and Bitfury’s highly experienced leadership team to grow the Company’s core businesses and scale its portfolio of new innovations.”
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Brian P. Brooks Biography
Most recently, Mr. Brooks served as Chief Executive Officer of digital asset exchange and marketplace Binance.US. Previously, from May 2020 to January 2021, Mr. Brooks served as the Acting Comptroller of the Currency, where he was the administrator of the federal banking system and the chief executive of the 3,500-employee federal agency responsible for chartering and supervising banks comprising 70 percent of all banking activity in the United States. He also served as a member of the board of directors of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and a voting member of the Financial Stability Oversight Council. Often referred to in the media as “the first fintech Comptroller” and “CryptoComptroller” for his work advancing financial innovation, Mr. Brooks led the government’s efforts to provide regulatory clarity for stablecoins, digital asset custody, and the development of blockchain payment networks, and granted the first federal bank charter to a cryptocurrency company. He also launched Project REACh, a national partnership of civil rights organizations, tech companies, and banks to promote financial inclusion through greater access to credit and capital.
From 2018 to 2020, Mr. Brooks served as Chief Legal Officer of Coinbase Global, Inc., where he led legal, compliance, internal audit, government relations, and global investigations groups at the digital asset platform. From 2014 to 2018, he served as Executive Vice President, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary of Fannie Mae, a $3.2 trillion asset public company that is the world’s largest investor in single-family and multifamily mortgage assets, and from 2011 to 2014, as Vice Chairman of OneWest Bank, N.A. Before joining OneWest Bank, N.A., he served as managing partner of O’Melveny & Myers LLP’s Washington, D.C. office.
Mr. Brooks also serves as an adviser or board member for a number of financial and fintech companies. Mr. Brooks received his BA from Harvard University and his JD from the University of Chicago.
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