Bitso named Luis Urrutia general counsel on August 15, 2025, a job that carries a second title, executive vice president of global regulatory affairs2. Urrutia had run Mexico's Financial Intelligence Unit and served as general counsel of the Bank of Mexico. He then became deputy general counsel of the International Monetary Fund, Yahoo Noticias reported on August 15, 2025. Bitso's own release, republished by FF News on August 18, 2025, called him "a global reference in AML and regulation"1.
The second executive hire at Bitso on the record since 2021
Every move CryptoLately has verified there, by the day it became public
Moves: The Moves Ledger, CryptoLately's record of verified leadership moves, Oct. 3, 2016 to Oct. 2, 2026.
Read the chart as a table
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| Aug. 30, 2021 | Smith became COO. Vaughan Smith was named Chief Operating Officer of Bitso |
| Aug. 15, 2025 | Urrutia became General Counsel. Luis Urrutia was named General Counsel and Executive Vice President of Global Regulatory Affairs of Bitso |
59 executive hires on the record in 2025, the most of any year
Executive hires CryptoLately has verified, by year; 2026 through Oct. 2, 2026
- 2025: 59
- 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2026
Moves: The Moves Ledger, CryptoLately's record of verified leadership moves, Oct. 3, 2016 to Oct. 2, 2026.
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 11 |
| 2020 | 12 |
| 2021 | 27 |
| 2022 | 37 |
| 2023 | 20 |
| 2024 | 39 |
| 2025 | 59 |
| 2026 | 45 |
The move
Urrutia's resume lists the bodies that write the rules Bitso now follows. He spent almost a decade at Mexico's finance ministry. There he served as federal deputy attorney general for financial affairs and headed the Financial Intelligence Unit, Yahoo Noticias reported2. During that tenure he led the design of Mexico's first full framework against money laundering and terrorist financing. He later became vice president, then president, of the Financial Action Task Force. More than 200 jurisdictions follow that body's rules against money laundering.
Why would a crypto exchange want a former financial intelligence chief running its legal team? Urrutia answered the question himself in Bitso's release. “Always at the forefront of best practices in the industry, I am excited to contribute with my experience in regulatory affairs to a sector in constant growth and evolution, helping to fulfill Bitso's mission of democratizing access to financial services,” Urrutia said1. Bitso's release named his mandate directly. He would strengthen the firm's global regulatory strategy. Consolidating what Bitso calls one of its pillars, its compliance culture, falls to him too.
Before and after at Bitso
The hire landed as Mexico's money-laundering rules for crypto platforms tightened. Yahoo Noticias reported that Mexico passed a reform to its anti-money-laundering law in July 2025. The reform newly requires crypto platforms to keep a formal compliance officer, a rule that spared them until then2. That reform is part of Mexico's prep work for its fifth review before the Financial Action Task Force. Yahoo Noticias said that review will wrap by the end of 2026.
Bitso's release and Yahoo Noticias's report leave Urrutia's predecessor unnamed12. Both skip the state of Bitso's legal office before his arrival. Here is what both accounts agree on. A former head of a national financial intelligence unit, and a former president of a global body, took the top legal job at Bitso at EVP rank, reporting into the executive team.
What the record shows
Bitso's release named the reach of Urrutia's new role1. Yahoo Noticias added the deadline behind the hire's timing2. Mexico's review before the Financial Action Task Force is due to wrap by the end of 2026. A Google News search on October 3, 2026, looked for a later page on Urrutia's work at Bitso. That search returned only reports from August 2025.
Sources
- Bitso, "Bitso Appoints Luis Urrutia, a Global Reference in AML and Regulation, as General Counsel and Regulatory Affairs EVP," FF News, August 18, 2025, https://ffnews.com/newsarticle/cryptocurrency/bitso-appoints-luis-urrutia-a-global-reference-in-aml-and-regulation-as-general-counsel-and-regulatory-affairs-evp/
- Sebastian Estrada, "Luis Urrutia, ex titular de la UIF y expresidente del GAFI se incorpora a Bitso," Yahoo Noticias, August 15, 2025, https://es-us.noticias.yahoo.com/luis-urrutia-titular-uif-expresidente-031418411.html