Jay Clayton, the former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman whose agency brought the landmark lawsuit against XRP-linked company Ripple, is expected to be named the White House’s new artificial intelligence czar.
Clayton currently serves as director of national intelligence. According to reports on Friday, he is expected to keep that job despite the new appointment.
He has gone from running Wall Street’s main regulator to advising crypto companies, serving as Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor, and eventually being the country’s intelligence chief and likely spearheading America’s AI developments.
The Senate confirmed Clayton as director of national intelligence on July 28. Artificial intelligence was already part of the discussion. During his July confirmation hearing, Clayton called AI a “game changer.”
Clayton remains best remembered for suing Ripple, which happened on his way out of the SEC.
Clayton’s crypto history
Clayton took over the SEC in May 2017. The start of his tenure coincided with the initial coin offering mania.
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In December 2017, Clayton said many of the token offerings he had seen looked like securities offerings.
According to SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, Clayton told lawmakers that he believed every ICO he had seen was a security.
Clayton also refrained from approving Bitcoin ETFs despite viewing the leading cryptocurrency as a commodity.
Still, he is primarily known for suing Ripple. The SEC claimed that XRP sales amounted to unregistered securities, and Clayton’s battle was later picked up by Gary Gensler. The SEC ended up losing.
After leaving the SEC, Clayton became involved with several crypto-focused companies. In early 2021, Clayton also joined One River Digital Asset Management’s Academic and Regulatory Advisory Council. Coinbase acquired the latter in March 2023.
Back then, Clayton also said that the approval of a U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF was “inevitable.”
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