Cipher Mining
Cipher Mining is the publicly-listed company through which the SoftBank-Bitfury linkage is observable in primary US securities filings — a NASDAQ-listed Bitfury spin-off in which both anchor sponsors (Vavilov-controlled V3 Holding Ltd and SoftBank's Star Beacon LLC) repositioned around the January 2025 Stargate announcement window. CIFR's holder transitions make Cipher the trading-visible counterpart to the privately-held UK parent Bitfury Group Limited, where the same window saw a $53.9 million share-premium cancellation dividend route capital out of the UK structure to V3 Holding Ltd.
Cipher Mining Inc is a Delaware-incorporated, NASDAQ-listed bitcoin mining and AI data-centre infrastructure company (ticker CIFR) that emerged in August 2021 as the public vehicle for Bitfury Group Limited's US-listing strategy, via a SPAC merger with Good Works Acquisition Corp at an approximate $2 billion enterprise value 1.
Cipher's controlling-economic chain runs from Latvian/British/Russian/Ukrainian quad-citizen Valery Vavilov, sole owner of V3 Holding Ltd, through Bitfury Group Limited (UK Companies House 11441275), Bitfury Top HoldCo B.V. (Strawinskylaan 3051, Amsterdam, incorporated 2020) and Bitfury Holding B.V., to roughly 93.4 million CIFR shares — about 23.05 percent of the public float at the moment of the January 2025 transactions central to this dossier 12.
On January 30, 2025, SoftBank executed a $50 million private investment in public equity in Cipher through a Delaware single-purpose vehicle, Star Beacon LLC, taking 10,438,413 CIFR shares plus an option on a 300-megawatt undeveloped Texas data-centre site, nine days after the January 21, 2025 White House announcement of the Stargate joint venture between SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle and Abu Dhabi's MGX Fund Management Limited 1.
By Q3 2025, SoftBank had removed the entire 10,438,413-share Star Beacon position — a 100 percent reduction within roughly nine months of entry — while V3 Holding Ltd trimmed its CIFR stake from 25.7 percent (95.4 million shares) in July 2025 to 20.2 percent (79.4 million shares) on September 15, 2025, and Vanguard Group absorbed 9,865,533 shares (+43.2 percent) in Q4 2025 31. The matched timing indicates the two anchor sponsors distributed concurrently into the post-announcement rally, which sits awkwardly with the public reading of the Star Beacon PIPE as a strategic Stargate-infrastructure alliance 3.
Corporate Structure
Cipher Mining Inc is a Delaware corporation listed on NASDAQ under ticker CIFR following an August 2021 SPAC merger with Good Works Acquisition Corp at an approximate $2 billion enterprise value, marketed as Bitfury Group Limited's US-listing route for industrial-scale bitcoin mining and, latterly, AI data-centre infrastructure 1.
The economic-control chain runs from Valery Vavilov, sole owner of V3 Holding Ltd, through Bitfury Group Limited (UK Companies House 11441275), Bitfury Top HoldCo B.V. at Strawinskylaan 3051 in Amsterdam (incorporated 2020), and Bitfury Holding B.V., to roughly 93.4 million CIFR shares (about 23.05 percent of the public float) at the moment of the January 30, 2025 Star Beacon PIPE 1. The Companies House register pulled May 7, 2026 confirms Vavilovs as the sole Person of Significant Control of UK 11441275 with greater-than-25-percent-to-50-percent shares and 75-percent-plus voting rights, and the right to appoint and remove directors 2.
The Bitfury-Cipher chain spans US (Delaware), UK (England and Wales), Netherlands and the UAE at the holding-vehicle and director-residency layers respectively, placing CIFR as the Nasdaq endpoint of a multi-jurisdictional structure whose parent governance is principally UAE-resident at director level 12.
Bitfury Group Spin-off (March-August 2021)
Cipher Mining was incorporated and brought public via a de-SPAC transaction with Good Works Acquisition Corp announced in March 2021 and consummated in August 2021 at an approximate $2 billion enterprise value 1. The transaction served as Bitfury Group Limited's NASDAQ spin-off route — the mechanism that translated Vavilov-controlled UK private-company economics into a US-listed equity tradable in 13F-reportable form 1.
Analysis of the board's composition indicates Brian Paul Brooks was appointed to the Bitfury Group Limited UK board on December 20, 2021, eleven months after his January 14, 2021 departure as Acting Comptroller of the Currency, sitting alongside Vavilov, George Kikvadze and Bertrand Gauquelin des Pallieres 24. Records show the Bitfury-to-OCC personnel track ran through two distinct revolving-door instances at the UK parent: Brooks served as Acting Comptroller in 2020-2021, and Jonathan Gould's subsequent 2025 OCC nomination cited prior senior Bitfury service — governance context the publicly-listed Cipher subsidiary inherits 45.
SoftBank Star Beacon PIPE (January 30, 2025)
On January 30, 2025, SoftBank executed a $50 million private investment in public equity into Cipher Mining via Star Beacon LLC, a Delaware wholly-owned subsidiary, taking 10,438,413 CIFR shares plus an option on a 300-megawatt undeveloped Texas data-centre site 1. The Subscription Agreement was filed as Exhibit 10.1 to Cipher Mining's Form 8-K and identifies SoftBank as the parent backing Star Beacon 3.
The transaction occurred nine days after the January 21, 2025 White House announcement of the Stargate joint venture between SoftBank (40 percent), OpenAI (40 percent), Oracle and MGX Fund Management Limited (collectively the remaining 20 percent), framed as a $7 billion initial commitment within a stated $500 billion ceiling, and was read by sell-side coverage as overt Stargate-themed AI-infrastructure positioning by SoftBank into a Bitfury-controlled US miner 1.
The Bitfury Group Limited board at the moment of the Star Beacon subscription comprised Vavilov (UAE-resident), des Pallieres (UAE-resident, OneIM Partner Private Credit), Kikvadze (running Bitfury MENA from Dubai) and Brooks (US-resident, ex-OCC Acting Comptroller, MicroStrategy director) — two of four directors UAE-resident and one a former US bank regulator 12. Records show the antecedent capital event one month earlier: a December 23, 2024 Bitfury Group Limited shareholder resolution authorising a $53.9 million share-premium cancellation and dividend, dated 38 days before the Cipher PIPE 26.
Q3 2025 Coordinated Insider Distribution
Per Q3 2025 13F institutional holdings filings tracked via Fintel and MarketBeat, SoftBank removed 10,438,413 CIFR shares (a 100 percent reduction) — the exact Star Beacon subscription count from January 30, 2025 — within approximately nine months of entry 3. Vanguard Group added 9,865,533 shares (+43.2 percent) in Q4 2025, almost exactly absorbing the SoftBank exit at the institutional-holder level 3.
The same Q3 2025 window saw V3 Holding Ltd, the Vavilov-controlled Bitfury parent, trim its CIFR position from 25.7 percent (95.4 million shares) in July 2025 to 20.2 percent (79.4 million shares) on September 15, 2025 — a concurrent partial distribution by the controlling-shareholder structure 1. Cipher Mining's reported 13F holder roster across this window includes V3 Holding Ltd, BlackRock, Vanguard, BIT Capital GmbH, Alyeska Investment Group, Geode Capital, State Street and Toroso, with 417 institutional owners holding 328,763,732 shares in aggregate 3.
The matched Q3 2025 timing indicates the two anchor sponsors that public coverage had treated as long-horizon strategic holders — Vavilov-V3 and SoftBank-Star Beacon — distributed in the same quarter into the AI-infrastructure rally that the January Stargate announcement had catalysed; the SoftBank stake, marketed as Stargate-aligned strategic positioning, resolved as a roughly nine-month round-trip 3.
Position in the Announcement-Bundling Pattern
Cipher sits among several pre-positioning trades that cluster around the January 2025 Stargate window: the Bitfury Group Limited $53.9 million share-premium cancellation dividend (December 23, 2024, 38 days before the Cipher PIPE), the AltC Acquisition closing in May 2024 with anomalous redemption activity, Crusoe Energy Systems beginning Abilene construction in June 2024 (seven months before the Stargate announcement) and the SoftBank Q3 2025 full Cipher exit. Analysis of these trades indicates the Stargate announcement was largely a re-bundling of pre-existing infrastructure already in motion 6.
Review of the filings places Cipher's role in a clear temporal sequence: a December 23, 2024 dividend out of the UK parent, a January 30, 2025 SoftBank PIPE into the US-listed subsidiary nine days post-announcement, and a Q3 2025 distribution into the announcement-driven rally 63. The UK-Netherlands-UAE-Delaware Bitfury-Cipher chain thus forms the corporate-structural rail along which the announcement-priced narrative was monetised, with the access premium accruing to the controlling structure rather than to operational AI-infrastructure deployment 21.
Significance to the Investigation
Cipher Mining converts the otherwise UK-private Bitfury structure into 13F-traceable share movements; SEC-reported holder transitions therefore document the SoftBank-Bitfury financial linkage with primary-source precision rather than press characterisation 31. The dossier's investigative weight rests on the Q3 2025 100-percent SoftBank exit matching the exact 10,438,413-share subscription count from January 30, 2025, paired with the V3 Holding Ltd 25.7-percent-to-20.2-percent trim in the same quarter — a configuration in which the publicly-narrated strategic alliance and the observed trading pattern diverge 31.
Examination of the parent board shows it also functions as a Bitfury-to-OCC personnel pipeline across two instances (Brooks 2020-2021 then Bitfury 2021; Gould's 2025 OCC nomination citing prior Bitfury service) and seats four directors at one table: des Pallieres (OneIM Partner Private Credit), Brooks (former OCC Acting Comptroller), Kikvadze (Bitfury MENA) and Vavilov (Ukraine-sanctioned founder). CIFR is the listed-equity counterpart to a parent governance structure with concentrated regulatory and jurisdictional positioning 475.
Within the broader announcement-bundling thread, records show Cipher contributes primary-source evidence of entry and exit by both anchor sponsors in the same window around a US-government-staged public announcement, with no intermediate fund-of-funds layer obscuring the trade timing 36.
All Connections
1 total
All Connections
1 totalJan 30 2025 — $50M PIPE from SoftBank Group Corp via 'Star Beacon LLC' subsidiary, ~10.4M CIFR shares, plus option on 300MW Texas data-center site. Market read as Stargate AI play (Stargate JV announced Jan 21 2025, 9 days earlier).
All Findings
9 total
All Findings
9 totalfinancial (2)
SoftBank Group Corp put a $50M PIPE into Cipher Mining (NASDAQ: CIFR) on Jan 30 2025 via subsidiary 'Star Beacon LLC' — plus an option on a 300MW Texas data-center site; the market read it as a Stargate AI infrastructure play (the Stargate JV was announced 9 days earlier). Vavilov's V3 Holding trimmed its CIFR position 25.7%→20.2% during Jul-Sep 2025 into the rally. The SoftBank-Bitfury linkage runs through Cipher Mining, not Bitfury Group itself.
Cipher Mining (NASDAQ: CIFR) was Bitfury Group's NASDAQ spinoff (merged with Good Works Acquisition Corp at $2B EV Mar-Aug 2021). Ownership chain: Vavilov sole owner of V3 Holding Ltd → V3 majority owner of Bitfury Group Limited (UK 11441275) → Bitfury Top HoldCo B.V. (Strawinskylaan 3051 Amsterdam, inc. 2020) → Bitfury Holding B.V. → ~93.4M CIFR shares (~23.05%). On Jan 30 2025 SoftBank Group Corp invested $50M via 'Star Beacon LLC' subsidiary (~10.4M CIFR shares) plus an option on a 300MW undeveloped Texas data-center site. The market read the investment as a Stargate AI play. The Stargate JV (SoftBank 40% / OpenAI 40% / Oracle / MGX 10% = $7B) was announced Jan 21 2025, 9 days before the Cipher PIPE. Vavilov's V3 trimmed its CIFR position from 25.7% (95.4M sh) Jul 2025 to 20.2% (79.4M sh) Sep 15 2025 into the SoftBank-driven rally. The Bitfury board (UK 11441275) at the moment of the Star Beacon PIPE: Vavilov (Latvian/Russian/Ukrainian/British quad-citizen, UAE resident), des Pallieres (French, UAE resident, OneIM Partner Private Credit), Kikvadze (Georgian, runs Bitfury MENA from Dubai), Brooks (American, ex-OCC Acting Comptroller, MSTR director). Two of the four are UAE residents, consistent with a UAE re-platforming pattern at the corporate-residency level. The structure suggests Bitfury operates less as blockchain infrastructure with regulatory adjacents than as regulatory positioning across US, UAE and post-Soviet jurisdictions, with mining infrastructure as the asset that monetizes the positioning. The SoftBank-Bitfury linkage therefore runs through the publicly-listed Cipher Mining rather than through the UK-private Bitfury Group itself. No direct Mubadala, IHC, MGX or OneIM equity in Bitfury Group itself is documented — but des Pallieres' OneIM dual role and the Cipher-SoftBank-Stargate axis narrow the distance to single-digit separation. Russia exposure (secondary-source, needs primary verification): Ukraine sanctioned Bitfury and Vavilov for alleged $3B Russia laundering; Vavilov retains Russian citizenship; Bitfury allegedly maintained Moscow operations post-Feb 2022; Vavilov's net worth grew ~$1B during the war.
Cipher Mining (CIFR) — SoftBank fully exited 100% of its 10.4M-share PIPE in Q3 2025; Vanguard added 9.87M shares Q4 2025 (+43.2%)
13F institutional holdings tracked via Fintel/MarketBeat show SoftBank Group Corp removed 10,438,413 shares (-100.0%) of CIFR in Q3 2025 — the exact share count from the Star Beacon LLC subscription agreement of Jan 30 2025 ($50M PIPE for ~10.4M shares; Star Beacon LLC is a Delaware wholly-owned subsidiary of SoftBank Group Corp per the SEC EX-10.1 filing). SoftBank exited within ~9 months of entry. Vanguard Group added 9,865,533 shares (+43.2%) in Q4 2025, almost exactly absorbing SoftBank's exit. Cipher 13F holders include V3 Holding Ltd (Vavilov-affiliated), BlackRock, Vanguard, BIT Capital GmbH, Alyeska Investment Group, Geode Capital, State Street and Toroso. CIFR has 417 institutional owners holding 328,763,732 shares total. In the same window, Vavilov's V3 Holding trimmed its stake 25.7%->20.2% (Jul-Sep 2025), concurrent with SoftBank's full exit. The matched timing suggests a coordinated Q3 2025 distribution by both anchor sponsors (Vavilov and SoftBank) into the AI rally; SoftBank's stake, treated by the market as strategic Stargate-infrastructure positioning, resolved as a roughly 9-month round-trip, which sits awkwardly with the 'SoftBank-Bitfury strategic alliance' reading.
relationship (1)
The Bitfury Group Ltd UK 11441275 board ties together des Pallieres (OneIM, Misra), Brooks (ex-OCC, MicroStrategy) and Vavilov; a recurring Bitfury-to-OCC Comptroller pipeline also runs through it (Brooks, 2020 Acting Comptroller; Jonathan Gould, 2025-, ex-Bitfury exec).
On or via the Bitfury Group Ltd UK 11441275 board: Bertrand Gauquelin des Pallieres (director and OneIM Partner Private Credit, Abu Dhabi), Brian P. Brooks (Bitfury board ~2021-2022, ex-OCC Acting Comptroller 2020-2021, joined MicroStrategy/Strategy board Dec 20 2024), and Valery Vavilov (founder via V3 Holding Ltd -> Bitfury Group Limited UK 11441275 -> Bitfury Top HoldCo B.V. Strawinskylaan 3051 Amsterdam). The Bitfury-to-OCC pipeline appears twice: (1) 2020, Brooks (Bitfury board -> OCC Acting Comptroller, designed Interpretive Letters 1170/1172/1174, the stablecoin/crypto-bank framework that scaffolds Tahnoon-WLFI deals); (2) 2025, Jonathan Gould (Jones Day -> Bitfury exec -> confirmed 32nd Comptroller Jul 10 2025 -> granted Erebor the 'first full-service national bank charter in four years'). Two separate Bitfury alumni thus moved into the crypto-banking regulator role. des Pallieres — through whom Misra met Benedetti and who is now OneIM Partner Private Credit (Mubadala-anchored) — sits on the same Bitfury board. The pattern suggests Bitfury functions as an institutional bridge between Tahnoon-cluster crypto-policy influence and US bank-regulator personnel, independent of Epstein, and is more consistent with an institutional-pipeline reading than with coincidence around Brooks alone.
legal (1)
Warren March 25 2025 confirmation-letter listed Bitfury alongside Blackrock and Promontory as Gould's prior 'senior roles'; demanded 4-year cooling-off + immediate divestiture commitment
Sen. Warren's pre-confirmation letter to Comptroller-designate Gould (Mar 25 2025, 16pp) explicitly states: 'Previously, you served as Senior Deputy Comptroller and Chief Counsel at the OCC. You have also served in senior roles at Bitfury, the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, Blackrock, and Promontory Financial Group.' Letter posed 100+ questions across Regulation/Supervision, Bank Merger Review, States' Rights, Crypto Assets, CRA, Enforcement, DOGE/Independence, and Ethics. Specific Ethics Q1: 'Do you agree with your former boss [Otting] that banks are the OCC's customers?' Q2: 'do you commit to recusing yourself in all matters related to your former clients for a period of four years?' Q3: 'In the past 12 months, have you advised any clients on any matters related to national bank chartering, licensing, mergers, permissible activities, regulation, supervision, or enforcement? If so, please list the client and the relevant matters.' Q4: 'will you commit to immediately divesting from owning securities, such as stock, stock options, and bonds, of banks or savings associations or their affiliates?' Q6: 'Do you commit to a 4-year cooling off period from representing any national banks, or their affiliates or holding companies, following the conclusion of your service as Comptroller?' Q5: 'Would you approve a merger transaction if so directed to by the White House, including after the applicant made a payment to the President, a member of his family, or to his related business interests?' Crypto Assets Q7-8 raised Anchorage Digital and Paxos/Protego conditional charters. Gould's prior law-firm clients per public reporting: JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Circle (the stablecoin issuer). Erebor approval Oct 15 2025 was first major chartering action under Gould — application reviewer was Cohen (ex-Skadden, former Erebor counsel).
intelligence (2)
The Bitfury Group UK board seats all four directors at one table: des Pallieres (also a SoftBank-matter figure), Brooks (Trump 2.0 OCC technocrat), Vavilov (Ukraine-sanctioned post-Soviet figure) and Kikvadze (Bitfury MENA). Brooks's MSTR appointment on Dec 20 2024 preceded SoftBank's $50M PIPE into Cipher Mining on Jan 30 2025 by 34 days.
Drawing on Findings #11114, #11130 and #11131: des Pallieres-OneIM and the Brooks crypto-banking framework each surface separately elsewhere in the record, but the single private board where the four directors sit together is the structural feature that links them. Treated as analysis rather than established fact.
Seven cross-cutting patterns. (1) The vault-firm regulatory revolving door appears across four instances: a three-instance Skadden-or-equivalent->OCC->implementation pipeline (Brooks 2020 Coinbase->OCC->Bitfury; Gould 2025 Bitfury/BlackRock/Promontory->OCC; Cohen 2025 Skadden->OCC->Erebor approval, with Cohen's 65-day window the tightest), plus a parallel vault-firm->OMB->Schaerr Jaffe->OMB pattern via Paoletta (2018 and 2025) at OMB, CFPB and OIRA, which is distinct from the OCC pipeline. (2) Brooks-era IL #1170/#1174 and IL #1184 remain operative law cited in the Erebor approval letter — the deregulation framework now scaffolds WLFI/Tahnoon flows. (3) Aryam Investment 1, a Tahnoon vehicle, bought 49% of WLFI for $500M ($187M to Trump-family entities); G42's Edelman and Xiao were seated undisclosed; MGX deployed $2B WLFI USD1 -> Binance in May 2025. (4) The 'Mubadala unifies' model now spans three SCFEA sovereign pillars (ADIA, Mubadala and L'IMAD, ~$300B after the Jan-2026 consolidation under Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed), a regulatory layer (Al Shorafa across ADX, SCA and ADGM Vice Chair) and a US-listing layer (Kazim as a Nasdaq Inc. director via Borse Dubai), with the bridges outlasting individual principals. (5) Pre-positioning trades cluster around the Jan 2025 Stargate window: the Bitfury $53.9M dividend on Dec 23 2024 (38 days before the Cipher PIPE), AltC's May 2024 close with an anomalous $7,457.80 redemption out of ~30M shares (PIPE backstop not triggered), Crusoe's Abilene construction start in Jun 2024 (7 months before the Stargate announcement) and SoftBank's full Cipher exit in Q3 2025 — together suggesting Stargate was largely a re-bundling of preexisting infrastructure already in motion. (6) Klein-Altman-Oklo and Stargate-MGX are separate at the SEC primary-source level despite press treatment merging them; Altman resigned the Oklo board on Apr 22 2025, three months after the Stargate announcement. (7) bin Sulayem resigned from DP World on Feb 13 2026 after the DOJ Epstein release — the first visible setback for the Tahnoon network on Epstein-related exposure; his replacement Kazim maintains and extends US-market access via the Nasdaq Inc. board seat. Corrections to the record: Stéphane->Bertrand G. des Pallières; Antoine Bremner unverified, likely Christopher Bremner; Compagnie Du Saleve B223232 was incorporated in 2018 and so cannot be the 28 Oct 2015 entity (likely the closed French SARL #803012046 instead); SKAS is the Saker Aviation Services ticker, not the partners' acronym; the Hoffenberg 'Gold shielded Epstein' claim has no docket support in 1:94-cr-00213.
identity (3)
Bitfury Group Ltd UK CO# 11441275 — verified board roster + 4 documented departures 2018-2024 + 2024 $53.9M share-premium cancellation
Companies House register (pulled May 7 2026) for 11441275: CURRENT (4): Brian Paul BROOKS (American, USA-resident, appointed 20 Dec 2021 — 11 months after his OCC departure Jan 14 2021); George KIKVADZE (Georgian); Bertrand Gauquelin Des PALLIERES (French, UAE-resident; address 'Centricus, Byron House, 7-9 St James's Street'); Valerijs VAVILOVS (Latvian, UAE-resident; Dubai address Cheddar Cheese Tower O-14, Marasi Drive, Business Bay). FORMER (4): Antoine Jacques DRESCH (resigned 25 Jan 2024 — 11 months before SoftBank-Cipher Star Beacon PIPE); Robert Roscoe Bernard DYKES (American, resigned 31 Aug 2020 — three weeks after Brooks's elevation to Acting Comptroller May 2020 + ~3 weeks after IL #1170 was issued July 22 2020); Jeremy Paul SEWELL (in/out same month Jul 2018, 1 Angel Court — incorporation agent); William Ping TAI (American, resigned 1 Sep 2020 — same week as Dykes). Sole PSC: Vavilovs — >25%-50% shares, 75%+ voting rights, right to appoint/remove. Identity verification due 12 Jul 2026. Key filings: 23 Dec 2024 resolutions for a $53.9M share-premium cancellation and dividend; 30 Sep 2024 resolutions for a share-premium cancellation effective 1 Mar 2024 — two equity returns to Vavilovs in 2024 worth tens of millions. SH01 share allotments on 5 Sep 2025, 21 Jan 2026, and 19/16/15 Feb 2024 indicate the capital structure was being actively restructured. A 4 Aug 2025 filing retroactively backdated des Pallieres' details to 1 Feb 2023.
Bertrand G. des Pallieres (not Stephane) is the Wind Hellas / TIM Hellas figure and founder/CEO of SPQR Capital; ex-JPMorgan MD and Global Head of Structured Credit (1992-2005), ex-Deutsche Bank MD and Global Head of Principal Finance (2005-2007); director of SPQR Capital Holdings SA (Lux), Equus Total Return Inc, Cadogan Petroleum Plc, Lansdowne Capital SA, InfraVia Capital Partners SAS, Attali Investment Partners Ltd, Euromax Finance Ltd, Methorios Capital Services Ltd, SPQR Capital (Cayman) Ltd and Bitfury Group Ltd.
An earlier record listed 'Stephane des Pallieres'; the correct name is Bertrand G. des Pallieres. He called on the ICAEW to investigate Ernst & Young over the Wind Hellas administration after SPQR Capital and other junior bondholders lost millions when Naguib Sawiris (Weather Investments) wiped GBP 1.3bn of debt in acquiring the group out of administration. His Bitfury board seat reflects blockchain crypto exposure.
Brian P. Brooks designed the OCC's crypto-banking framework (Interpretive Letters #1170/#1172/#1174) and is a central figure in Trump 2.0 crypto policy; he sits on the Bitfury board with des Pallieres, UAE-resident Vavilov and Georgian Kikvadze, and joined the MicroStrategy/Strategy board on Dec 20 2024, 34 days before SoftBank's $50M Star Beacon PIPE into Cipher.
Born Sep 1969 Pueblo Colorado; Harvard AB (Government); University of Chicago JD; American Law Institute member. Career: O'Melveny & Myers Managing Partner DC Chair Financial Services → 2011-2014 VC + Chief Legal Officer at OneWest Bank (Steven Mnuchin's bank) → 2014-2018 EVP/GC at Fannie Mae ($3.2T) → Sep 2018-May 2020 Chief Legal Officer Coinbase → May 29 2020-Jan 14 2021 Acting Comptroller of the Currency (Trump 1.0) → Apr-Aug 2021 Binance.US CEO (resigned 4mo over 'strategic differences') → Oct 2021-Dec 2022 Bitfury Group CEO → Dec 20 2021-present Bitfury board director → Mar 2023+ HBAR Foundation board → Apr 2024+ Chairman & CEO Meridian Capital Group (mortgage broker, succeeded co-founder Ralph Herzka) → Dec 20 2024+ board director Strategy Inc/MicroStrategy (NASDAQ: MSTR) alongside Galaxy Digital director Jane Dietze. The framework Brooks built at the OCC: IL #1170 (Jul 22 2020) bank crypto custody; IL #1172 (Sep 21 2020) bank deposits as stablecoin reserves; IL #1174 (Jan 4 2021) banks as validator nodes and stablecoin payments; the first crypto national-trust charter (Anchorage Digital Bank Jan 2021); the first fintech national bank charter (Varo Jul 2020); and conditional charters for SoFi, Paxos and Protego. Acting Comptroller Hsu's IL #1179 (Nov 2021) tried to claw these back via supervisory non-objection, a move readily reversible by a Brooks-aligned 2025+ OCC. These three letters provide the legal scaffolding for WLFI/USD1 stablecoin, Tahnoon-DTR/DRAM, MGX-Stargate and other actors seeking national-bank crypto rails. On the Trump 2.0 track: Brooks met Trump in person in Nov 2024; was the 40% lead candidate on Kalshi for SEC Chair (Atkins was ultimately selected); and was considered for a proposed first-ever White House Crypto Advisor role. His OneWest connection to Mnuchin predating Trump 1.0 adds a GOP financial-nominee provenance line. He sold $4.6M of Coinbase stock when leaving for the OCC in June 2020. Brooks's MSTR appointment (Dec 20 2024) came 34 days before SoftBank's $50M PIPE into Cipher Mining (Bitfury's NASDAQ spinoff). His concurrent boards (MSTR-Saylor bitcoin treasury, HBAR smart-contract L1, Bitfury mining infrastructure and Meridian mortgage-GSE) span much of the Trump 2.0 crypto policy agenda.