Circle Company, the stablecoin issuer, will recruit Heath Tarbert on July 1 to strengthen its power in dealing with crypto-related regulation. According to the announcement on Twitter by CEO Jeremy Allaire, Heath Tarbert will take over as chief legal officer and lead related affairs at the company.
Heath Tarbert, who will join Circle, has held numerous leadership positions in regulatory agencies and the federal government, including the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the International Organization of Securities Commissions, the Treasury United States Treasury, the Financial Stability Board, and the World Bank Group. He also served as special advisor to the US Senate Committee on Banking and Urban Planning.
Tarbert will join Circle after nearly two years as chief legal officer at Citadel Securities, where he oversees global legal, compliance, oversight and regulatory affairs. He will replace Flavia Naves, general counsel at Circle, who reportedly announced his departure from the company earlier this year.
Tarbert’s arrival comes amid uncertainty in the new crypto regulatory environment in the United States. Recently, the Securities and Exchange Commission sued cryptocurrency exchanges Coinbase and Binance with various allegations. Surveillance measures from regulators have hurt businesses in the crypto space and spurred capital outflows.
In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Jeremy Allaire, Circle CEO, criticized US regulators’ crackdown on cryptocurrencies, causing a decline in the market capitalization of stablecoin USD Coin.