Founding Coin Center Chief Jerry Brito Stepping Down After Decade

The top officials at the crypto think tank Coin Center are leaving as the group celebrates its first decade.

Executive Director Jerry Brito and Senior Policy Counsel Robin Weisman are out at the end of the year, and Peter Van Valkenburgh will take the helm.

Jerry Brito, the founding executive director of the venerable-for-crypto advocacy and research organization Coin Center will step down by the end of the year, he wrote in a post on the group’s website, adding that he’ll be retaining a board seat.

The same goes for Robin Weisman, Coin Center’s senior policy counsel, who will also stay on the board of directors for the crypto research group, which since its first days in 2014 had been characterized more as a “think tank” than a lobbying organization.

The new executive director will be Peter Van Valkenburgh, and Landon Zinda will move into a role as policy director. The note didn’t mention a next career step for Brito or Weisman, and a Coin Center spokesman said neither has shared any plans.

“Peter groks Coin Center’s mission better than anyone, and his depth of knowledge and experience at the intersection of crypto and constitutional law is unmatched,” noted Brito, a familiar face over the years at Washington congressional hearings and other policy events.

“Our goal at the outset was to secure time for Bitcoin to reach ‘escape velocity,’ and on that score, I think we succeeded,” Brito wrote. “The struggle is not over yet, though.”

The top Coin Center officials leave as the organization is still fighting the Internal Revenue Service’s effort to institute crypto tax reporting rules. The change to the U.S. tax code – coming from 2021’s Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act – would demand that crypto users exchanging digital assets worth more than $10,000 gather and share information that includes real names, Social Security numbers and addresses. Coin Center first filed a lawsuit in 2022 challenging its constitutionality and is still arguing it amounts to “overbearing surveillance.” A judge in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit gave the case a second shot last month after it had been dismissed earlier.

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