The Centre Consortium today announced the appointment of Wall Street veteran David Puth as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO). As CEO, Mr. Puth will build the leadership and operations teams needed to expand Centre globally, as well as grow Centre membership to include leading fintechs, banks, other financial services and payments firms along with crypto finance firms. He will also lead the effort to support the adoption of Centre stablecoins on blockchain networks and across the wider blockchain ecosystem.
David brings several decades of experience leading and operating world-leading currency, derivatives, commodities and emerging markets businesses for JP Morgan Chase and State Street Corporation. Mr. Puth held top executive management positions in these firms, with a deep focus on global markets and the core market infrastructure supporting global trade and economic activity, including 19 years at JP Morgan Chase where he served on the Executive Committee and at State Street, where he was part of the bank’s senior most Operating Committee.
Most recently, David was Chief Executive Officer of CLS Bank International, a global consortium owned by the 70 most critical financial institutions in the world and operating the largest global multi-currency settlement system, supporting over $1.7 trillion in transactions per day. CLS is designated by the Financial Stability Oversight Council as one of the world’s Systemically Important Financial Market Utilities, and is supervised by 23 of the world’s leading central banks.
Mr Puth’s appointment as Centre’s CEO comes at a pivotal moment in time, with the growing use of digital currencies and blockchains heralding the most significant transformation of the international monetary system since the formation of the Bretton Woods system more than 75 years ago. Now garnering the full attention of major policymakers, regulators and central banks, the rise of digital currencies on the public internet creates an enormous opportunity to establish technology, industry standards and networks for this new age of internet-based money.
Co-founded by digital currency industry pioneers Circle and Coinbase in 2018, Centre governs the technology, policy, compliance, audit and reserve standards for USD Coin (USDC), the fastest growing dollar-based digital currency in the world. Centre was founded with the mission to connect every person, merchant, financial service and currency in the world through the power of digital currency and open, public blockchain networks.
USDC, the first fiat digital currency standard introduced by Centre, has rapidly become an industry-leading standard for dollars on blockchains, and is very widely supported in the blockchain ecosystem globally. In 2020, the amount of USDC in circulation has grown ~500% to nearly $3 billion, and it has supported over $215 billion in on-chain transactions. As a standard protocol for digital dollars on the internet, it is already supported on leading blockchains including Ethereum, Algorand, Stellar and Solana, making it one of the most important digital currencies in the world.
As CEO, in addition to growing membership, Mr. Puth will also work with local and global regulators to support the introduction of new fiat digital currencies built on Centre standards.
“We are incredibly thrilled to welcome David as the Chief Executive of Centre. David is an exceptional industry leader, executive and steward of the global financial system, and deeply shares our mission and vision for building a radically more open and inclusive global financial system”, said Jeremy Allaire, Centre Board Member and Circle Chairman and CEO. “As Centre scales to add new members, currencies and stakeholders, we are blessed to have an industry leader who has the understanding and experience to help build this new international monetary system.”
“I could not be more enthused about joining Centre at this critical time in the industry. The growth of USDC over the course of 2020 is indicative of what I expect will be the path for Centre business activities and that of future Centre-supported stablecoins,” said David Puth, Centre CEO.
“Having a seasoned veteran who has experience building, managing and growing infrastructure in financial services will allow Centre and USDC to continue to scale,” said Alesia Haas, Centre Board Member and Chief Financial Officer at Coinbase. “I look forward to working alongside David as USDC advances forward.”
Live on the Money Movement, Thursday December 3rd
David Puth, Centre CEO, and Alesia Hass, Coinbase CFO and Centre Board Member, will join Money Movement host, Circle CEO and Centre Board Member, Jeremy Allaire, for a special live edition of the video interview series and podcast, Thursday, December 3rd, to discuss the future of Centre and USDC. Learn more here.
