Crypto Council for Innovation names former WEF exec as CEO

The Crypto Council for Innovation (CCI), a coalition of major firms committed to lobbying policymakers on crypto issues, has installed a former executive from the World Economic Forum as its CEO. 

Bloomberg reported today that Sheila Warren will helm the group, which includes heavy hitters like Fidelity Digital, Coinbase, Block (formerly Square) and Andreessen Horowitz.

At the WEF, Warren served as Head of the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, head of Data, Blockchain, and Digital Assets and as a member of the Executive Committee.

The CCI launched in April of last year with the goal of influencing the policy narrative around digital assets. Since then, crypto has become a bigger issue in Washington, thanks in large part to controversial new legislation aimed at crypto tax reporting. 

In recent months, unprecedented sums have been devoted to lobbying on behalf of crypto issues. The CCI did not report any spending on lobbying until August, when it spent $60,000 on a contract with law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck.

Bloomberg reported that the CCI plans to keep its focus domestic in the short term. However, Warren told the publication that she also wants to focus on global policy and plans to develop the international connections she forged during her time at the WEF.