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Coinbase has been advocating for a change in the financial system to include digital assets. Coinbase Twitter

KEY POINTS

  • Chris Lehane was a political strategist for Bill Clinton in 1992, before Clinton started his term
  • Clinton said in 2018 that the possibilities associated with blockchain are 'staggeringly great'
  • Lehane's appointment comes as Coinbase defends itself in a lawsuit filed by the SEC

Cryptocurrency exchange giant Coinbase has added three new appointees to its Board of Directors, and one of them is a senior OpenAI executive who also happens to be a former aide to ex-President Bill Clinton.

Coinbase made the announcement Thursday, saying it has appointed Chris Lehane to its Board of Directors, along with Paul Clement, a partner of the Clement & Murphy PLLC law firm, and Christa Davies, who has vast experience in finance.

"They each have different political philosophies. They each have had vastly different career paths. But, they have all arrived at the same conclusion: crypto is a powerful tool to update the system," Coinbase said of the new appointments.

"I am excited to support Coinbase as they continue to advocate for the 52 million Americans who own crypto (over-indexing on young people of color), and work to democratize the benefits of capitalism so more people can keep their fair share of the economic pie," Lehane said of his new position.

Lehane's appointment is of great interest to the crypto industry, as he served as a political strategist to Clinton in 1992, shortly before the former U.S. president started his presidency.

Notably, Clinton said in 2018, during the annual Swell conference hosted by fintech giant Ripple, that the "permutations and possibilities of blockchain technology are staggeringly great." He noted that blockchain has vast potential "because it is applicable across national borders [and] income groups."

Venture capitalist and tech entrepreneur Matthew Roszak revealed in 2016 that he gave Clinton "his first Bitcoin." Roszak is known for his investments in the Bitcoin community and is an advocate of blockchain technology.

Meanwhile, Lehane's entry into Coinbase's board comes at a critical time in the crypto titan's legal fight against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in a lawsuit filed by the latter last year. Coinbase has been pushing the Wall Street regulator to engage in new rulemaking to establish regulations that are specific to the digital assets industry, and also sued the SEC for allegedly seeking to "destroy" the crypto sector.

Just this week, Coinbase asked the court to compel the SEC to produce documents that should help with its defense as it pushes back against the regulatory agency's claims that it was offering unregistered securities.

In its latest filing, the crypto behemoth said the SEC has refused to provide the necessary discovery documents on grounds of privilege and burden. However, Coinbase said that "neither the SEC nor Chair [Gary] Gensler has made any effort to substantiate their claims of 'burden.' And their blanket claims of privilege are improper."

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