Former CIA Analyst and Leading Crypto Policy Expert to Guide The Foundation’s Global Engagement on Scaling Secure, On-chain Financial Infrastructure
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Aleo Network Foundation, the nonprofit corporation that oversees the health of the Aleo Network, a privacy and compliance infrastructure that powers secure, programmable, worldwide payments, today announced the appointment of Yaya J. Fanusie as Global Head of Policy. Following recent global partnerships with Paxos Labs, Global Dollar Network, Binance Alpha, Revolut, Worldpay and Request Finance, Fanusie will bolster the Foundation's efforts to work with policy stakeholders to ensure Aleo and other blockchains continue to develop and deliver privacy-preserving, compliant payments at scale.
Fanusie is a leading expert on crypto and fintech, with more than 15 years of experience spanning government, policy, and the private sector across finance, national security and blockchain innovation. At the Foundation, Fanusie will lead global policy engagement and regulatory strategy, helping shape adoption of privacy-preserving and compliant blockchain-based financial systems and stablecoins by consumers, enterprises and institutions.
Before joining the Foundation, Fanusie was Director of Policy for AML & Cyber Risk at the Crypto Council for Innovation, a global alliance advancing responsible crypto innovation. He is a Visiting Fellow at Georgetown University’s Psaros Center for Financial Markets & Policy, focusing on digital assets research, and has served as Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), where his research covered blockchain, central bank digital currencies, and the illicit use of crypto. Earlier in his career, he worked as an economic and counterterrorism analyst at the CIA, briefing federal law enforcement, U.S. military personnel, and White House officials. He later became Director of Analysis for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance, producing some of the first public research on terrorist use of cryptocurrencies.
“Digital assets are no longer a niche experiment. They’re becoming core to how the world transacts,” said Fanusie. “The real question is whether this next chapter will be built on systems people can trust. Aleo is setting a new standard and showing that privacy and compliance aren’t at odds with each other – they are prerequisites for mainstream adoption. I look forward to bringing that perspective into conversations with regulators and global institutions.”
“Yaya’s expertise as an eminent voice on crypto, national security, financial crime, and blockchain policy makes him an invaluable addition to the Foundation as regulatory momentum from the GENIUS Act drives digital asset adoption,” said Leena Im, Chief Operating Officer of the Aleo Network Foundation. “Yaya’s appointment accelerates our mission to establish the first blockchain privacy layer that works for the mainstream by making crypto payments private, fast, and viable for everyday life.”
Aleo uses zero-knowledge proofs to enable private-by-design smart contracts with configurable compliance, empowering governments, enterprises, and consumers to use blockchain securely for cross-border, peer-to-peer and B2B payments, institutional DeFi, payroll, identity verification and beyond. Developers around the world are building on the network and launching privacy-preserving applications. Aleo is backed by top-tier investors including a16z, Haun Ventures, SoftBank, and Samsung Next, and the Foundation is led by a team with decades of experience spanning U.S. Special Operations Forces, the White House, Meta, and Circle.
About The Foundation and the Aleo Network
The Aleo Network is the privacy-first infrastructure layer for digital payments. Powered by zero-knowledge cryptography, Aleo combines end-to-end encryption with smart contract programmability, bringing privacy, compliance, and scalability to stablecoins and blockchain-based financial systems.
Backed by leading investors including a16z, Softbank and Coinbase Ventures, the Foundation is headquartered in the U.S. and focused on enabling the next generation of secure, on-chain, financial infrastructure.
For more information about Aleo and to stay updated on its latest developments, visit www.aleo.org.
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