Backpack US appoints former SEC Acting Chairman Piwowar to board amid push for crypto perps
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Crypto exchange Backpack US has appointed former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Acting Chairman Michael S.
Key facts
- Launched in 2023, Backpack last raised capital in a $17 million Series A funding round in 2024, led by Placeholder VC, with support from Robot Ventures, Wintermute, and Selini
- Piwowar, now at Georgetown University, was appointed by President Barack Obama and served as an SEC commissioner from 2013 to 2018
- Backpack has also signaled plans to go public, including announcing a proposed “post-IPO” company treasury backed by 37.5% of its total 1 billion exchange token supply, as well as an equity-linked
- Before the SEC, Piwowar served as chief economist for the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, where he was the lead economist on the SEC-related titles of the Dodd-Frank Act
Summary
Crypto exchange Backpack US has appointed former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Acting Chairman Michael S. “The U.S. regulatory landscape for digital assets is entering a new phase, with increasing focus on bringing innovation into established financial market structures through clear rules and effective oversight,” Piwowar said in a statement. Piwowar, now at Georgetown University, was appointed by President Barack Obama and served as an SEC commissioner from 2013 to 2018. Although Piwowar and other SEC commissioners stated at the time that bitcoin should not be considered a security, he and the Commission took a skeptical approach to the initial coin offering boom. During Piwowar's four-month stint as acting chairman in 2017, the SEC rejected the Winklevoss twins' proposal for a bitcoin exchange-traded fund, an application that had originally been filed four years earlier.