Joining Paradigm

Alex Grieve, Government Affairs Lead

I’ve spent the last decade in Washington, DC at the intersection of politics and financial policy. After beginning my career with Speaker of the House John Boehner, I spent four years as part of the government relations team of the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC), the financial market infrastructure that clears and settles the trades of the US equity markets. It was here that I found crypto: The more I learned about our financial system’s inner workings, the more I felt that its technology was hopelessly outdated compared to the rest of our economy. I bought my first BTC and ETH on Coinbase in 2017, and never looked back. And as DTCC explored blockchain-based settlement, I was one of the earliest in DC to work with Hill staffers to explain blockchains and digital assets.

For the past two years, I’ve helped build the crypto practice at leading regulatory advisory firm Tiger Hill Partners, where I was fortunate to work with such firms as Coinbase, Polygon Labs, and BitGo, trade associations such as the Proof of Stake Alliance, and members of the broader crypto policy and startup communities in DC and across the country.

Now we are at a critical juncture for US crypto policy: multiple bills on Capitol Hill are tackling everything from stablecoins to market structure; activist regulators are making seemingly-qualitative judgments about the relative value of an entire industry; and countries around the world are racing ahead of the US, seeing the enormous opportunity crypto provides, and establishing their own purpose-built regulatory regimes to support it.

Given this backdrop, and the immense challenge ahead, I’m thrilled to share that I’m joining Paradigm as its Government Affairs Lead.

The incredible investment firm that Fred Ehrsam and Matt Huang have built leads the industry in supporting innovators and entrepreneurs – and Paradigm has the team, the expertise, the resources, the commitment, and the will to promote crypto’s policy priorities in Washington.

I couldn’t be more excited to join Paradigm, and the finest team in crypto policy: Rodrigo Seira, who files a new amicus brief or comment letter on behalf of the crypto community seemingly every week, while taking quick breaks to debate critics on podcasts; Dominique Little, whose relationships with key policymakers are unparalleled; Brendan Malone, technology and monetary policy and theory gigabrain; Justin Slaughter, whose deep and multidisciplinary experience in law, financial policy, legislative strategy, and financial regulation manifests on Twitter as a crypto policy threadoooor non pareil; and Katie Biber, Paradigm’s Chief Legal Officer, one of the most experienced and respected leaders anywhere in fintech and crypto, and a veteran of hard-fought presidential campaigns.

While I have long been a staunch advocate of crypto in Washington – it’s time to join the best team in the business and help lead the fight.