Brett Redfearn, a former director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s trading and markets division, has been named president of the tokenization firm Securitize.
The move, announced Thursday, marks an expanded role for Redfearn, who initially joined Securitize as a senior strategic adviser in 2021.
“Brett has been instrumental in how modern markets are structured and regulated,” Carlos Domingo, Securitize’s CEO and co-founder, said in a statement Thursday. “He is deeply familiar with our business, leadership team and long-term vision. As tokenization becomes an integral part of core financial infrastructure, his experience will help ensure this transition is built to improve existing market structure, with the protections and integrity investors expect.”
The digital-asset space has become an increasingly common landing spot for former regulators. Such hires, presumably, can add cachet and credibility to a growing firm looking to navigate a niche whose policy is yet to be finalized.
Redfearn worked at the SEC between 2017 and 2021, and jumped to Coinbase after his stint, serving briefly as the crypto firm’s head of capital markets before establishing his own business, Panorama Financial Markets Advisory, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Other former regulators have had similar post-government trajectories. Brian Brooks became CEO of Binance.US in 2021 after his tenure as acting comptroller of the currency. As with Redfearn’s Coinbase experience, Brooks’ Binance stint was brief. Brooks later became CEO of tech incubator Bitfury and eventually began leading commercial real estate finance platform Meridian Capital Group.
Kathy Kraninger, a first-term Trump-era director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, joined crypto startup Solidus Labs – as vice president of regulatory affairs – after leaving government. She has since exited the digital asset space to become CEO of the Florida Bankers Association, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Securitize is planning to go public in the next several months through a special-purpose acquisition company in a deal that has valued the firm at $1.25 billion, the company said in October.
In his new role, Redfearn will help scale Securitize’s platform across issuance, trading and fund administration, and drive engagement with regulators, exchanges and institutional partners, the firm said. Redfearn is also joining the company’s board, with an eye toward guiding Securitize’s long-term strategy.
“I've spent my career at the intersection of markets, regulation, and technology and there has never been a more exciting time to positively affect market structure,” Redfearn wrote in a LinkedIn post. “The infrastructure of tomorrow's financial system is being built right now, and I'm proud to help lead that effort at Securitize.”
Before joining the SEC, Redfearn cut his teeth in the traditional banking sphere, serving for nearly a decade at JPMorgan Chase, eventually becoming head of market structure across asset classes globally, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Securitize counted roughly $4 billion in assets under management as of November.
