Christopher Giancarlo chaired the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission from 2017 to 2019. He left the BlockFi board of directors on September 1, 2021, four months after he joined it12. BlockFi's own announcement said Ellen-Blair Chube, a managing director at William Blair, would take his seat. Giancarlo “will continue to provide strategic counsel to the firm in an advisory role,” the announcement said. Decrypt reported the same day that Giancarlo had joined the board in April 2021, "when the fast-growing firm was riding high on Bitcoin's bull run".
Three of BlockFi's 6 leadership moves on the record came in 2021, its busiest year
Leadership moves CryptoLately has verified at BlockFi, by year
- 2021: 3
- 2022, 2023, 2024
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 |
|---|---|
| 2021 | 3 |
| 2022 | 2 |
| 2023 | 0 |
| 2024 | 1 |
Four board exits on the record in 2021
Board exits CryptoLately has verified, by year
- 2021: 4
- 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
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 |
|---|---|
| 2018 | 1 |
| 2019 | 1 |
| 2020 | 2 |
| 2021 | 4 |
| 2022 | 0 |
| 2023 | 2 |
| 2024 | 4 |
| 2025 | 7 |
The move
BlockFi's press release named both moves in one sentence. Chube "replaces the Honorable J. Christopher Giancarlo," and Giancarlo would stay on as an adviser1. He skipped his reason for leaving the board. “BlockFi is an institution that is critical to the broader crypto ecosystem,” he said. “I'm looking forward to continuing to advise this impressive group of leaders, as they work to bridge the worlds of traditional finance and blockchain technology. The best is yet to come for BlockFi and I know that as crypto assets take a more prominent role in both retail and institutional investors' strategies, BlockFi will be there to lead the way”.
Decrypt put the timing beside a run of state action against BlockFi. New Jersey had delayed a cease-and-desist order twice. Alabama had issued a show-cause notice over the sale of unregistered securities. Texas, Vermont and Kentucky had filed cease-and-desist orders. Each order forced BlockFi to stop offering its interest accounts in that state2. Decrypt drew a parallel to Brian Brooks, the former acting Comptroller of the Currency who had resigned as Binance.US chief executive after three months. Giancarlo, "like Brooks," was "abruptly leaving without much in the way of explanation," Decrypt wrote.
BlockFi before and after
Giancarlo earned the nickname "Crypto Dad" during his CFTC tenure for what Decrypt called his "friendly approach to digital assets"2. He joined BlockFi's board in April 2021, the same year the company raised $350 million in a Series D round at a $3 billion valuation. Chube brought a different background. She had joined William Blair in 2015, after work at Ariel Investments as vice president and chief of staff to its chairman and chief executive, BlockFi's announcement said1.
What came next
BlockFi and eight affiliates filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in a New Jersey court on November 28, 2022. The collapse of FTX had frozen obligations the exchange owed the lender, Banking Dive reported3. Mark Renzi, a Berkeley Research Group managing director serving as BlockFi's financial adviser, said in the bankruptcy announcement that “with the collapse of FTX, the BlockFi management team and board of directors immediately took action to protect clients and the Company”. Banking Dive's report on the filing leaves Giancarlo unmentioned.
Sources
- BlockFi, "BlockFi Welcomes Ellen-Blair Chube to Board of Directors," Sept. 1, 2021, https://web.archive.org/web/20230329043658/https://blockfi.com/blockfi-welcomes-ellen-blair-chube-to-board-of-directors
- Jeff Benson, "Former CFTC Chair Giancarlo Exits BlockFi Board as States Crack Down on Firm," Decrypt, Sept. 1, 2021, https://decrypt.co/79989/former-cftc-chair-giancarlo-exits-blockfi-board-states-crack-down-firm
- "BlockFi files for bankruptcy amid FTX contagion," Banking Dive, Nov. 28, 2022, https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMikgFBVV95cUxNY1VTQW40bl9hLWxRWnNablpPelJCYm9tOWczOW9XNUpQZVh0SFdrdE1sRC1kQ2VkZU94ZlZwWnhVeHd1X2RrZ1ZwN0pJU0lZYXJPaUxsSmVtYmxMSElmMS1iU2l6S2ZZU3NUQkk5ZDhCN2RUQVV0cUpCTlZYY2szTnI1X0dTVlV4LWIyOWx4Nmx0dw?oc=5