Particle.news
Download on the App Store

Backpack US Adds Ex-SEC Acting Chair Michael Piwowar to Board

The hire signals Backpack’s move to pursue regulated U.S. perpetual futures after a recent CFTC decision opened a domestic path for those products.

Overview

  • Backpack US confirmed on Tuesday that Michael S. Piwowar has joined its board to strengthen the company’s Washington-facing governance as it pushes into U.S. markets.
  • The company is promoting a newly launched stock trading platform that supports traditional and tokenized equities as part of its U.S. expansion plans announced earlier this month.
  • Backpack says it will seek to offer regulated U.S. perpetual futures, citing a late-May CFTC approval that created a route to bring bitcoin perpetual contracts onshore.
  • Piwowar served as an SEC commissioner from 2013 to 2018 and briefly as acting chair in 2017; he previously argued that bitcoin is not a security while the agency took a skeptical view of ICOs.
  • Backpack has also outlined post-IPO token and treasury plans and an equity-linked staking model that would tie a large share of exchange token supply to corporate rewards, a move that could reshape how token holders share in company economics.