Former acting White House chief of staff
Mick Mulvaney
has joined Astra Protocol as a strategic adviser, the crypto compliance provider said Wednesday.
Mr. Mulvaney, who also was the U.S. special envoy for Northern Ireland until he resigned from his post in the Trump administration in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol last year, will focus on U.S. strategy for Zurich-based Astra, which is developing a decentralized compliance product for the crypto industry.
His focus includes helping Astra understand evolving global cryptocurrency policies and to develop the company’s role in Web3, the company said. Web3 is a loosely defined vision for a decentralized internet that uses technologies including blockchain to disperse the current corporate control over the web.
Mr. Mulvaney represented South Carolina’s fifth district in the House of Representatives between 2011 and 2017 and formed the Congressional Blockchain Caucus. He served as director of the Office of Management and Budget for three years before becoming the acting White House chief of staff under former President Trump. He also advises the crypto trade association Chamber of Digital Commerce.
“Maintaining regulatory compliance is essential for the continued growth and adoption of decentralized finance,” Mr. Mulvaney said in a statement Wednesday. “As global policies evolve, firms will need to carefully navigate the landscape as regulations shift beneath their feet.”
Astra said Mr. Mulvaney’s years in the government and policy would help it navigate complicated regulatory environments world-wide and help it meet its goals around providing regulatory compliance for decentralized protocols, including know-your-customer onboarding and anti-money-laundering products.
Decentralized finance, or DeFi, made possible by smart contracts has enabled crypto enthusiasts to replicate many of the functions of the financial services sector for the crypto industry without needing Wall Street. Astra said it aims to provide a decentralized compliance layer for all DeFi smart contracts, which would be able to verify information in various settings.
Mr. Mulvaney’s appointment comes as more former government officials make the leap to the financial technology and cryptocurrency sectors.
Jay Clayton,
the former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chairman under President Trump, joined cryptocurrency custody platform Fireblocks Inc. as an adviser last summer while continuing to work as a senior policy adviser at the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell LLP.
Write to Mengqi Sun at mengqi.sun@wsj.com
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