Robert A. Cohen, former head of the Cyber Unit at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), is leaving the agency for private practice, joining a law firm that represents Coinbase and other cryptocurrency firms.According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, Cohen is joining Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, a corporate law firm, where he will assume a partner position. Given the firm’s extensive fintech clientele, Cohen will doubtlessly lean on the understanding he gained about U.S. cryptocurrency regulation while in his former position. Cohen resigned the SEC back July 2019, after serving the agency for about 15 years. As the head of the Cyber Unit, he oversaw the commission’s work on cyber-related misconduct like initial coin offering (ICO) violations and dark web misconduct. In the cryptocurrency sphere, he may be best known as a leader in the case against social messaging platform Kik and its controversial ICO.
