Polygon recruits top Aave lawyer Rettig for crypto policy role
Polygon Labs, a blockchain company that has been adding executives despite a tough cryptocurrency market, has named digital finance attorney Rebecca Rettig as its first head of policy.
Rettig joins Polygon after spending nearly the last two years as head of legal and policy for Aave Ltd., a decentralized financial lending project. Her new position will require Rettig to meet with politicians and regulators around the world to advocate for Polygon’s interests.
“Ensuring mass adoption of new and paradigm-shifting technology takes time, as does policy adoption,” Rettig said. “I tell skeptics that there is great promise in a blockchain-based internet, and that getting the policy right means the possibilities are endless.”
Polygon’s operations include decentralized finance, non-fungible tokens, stablecoins and games for Web3 – the name for the digital infrastructure behind the next World Wide Web. Polygon, which works with financial services companies such as accounting and consulting firm EY, is behind a scaling platform for the Ethereum blockchain.
Her move to Polygon reunites Rettig with Marc Boiron, a private practice colleague who joined the company last year as head of legal.
Rettig, a litigator by training, and Boiron, a corporate attorney, previously worked together at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips and FisherBroyles, where they focused on representing crypto and blockchain clients.
“He’s one of the sharpest legal minds in the Web3 space, and we’ve been discussing policy issues for many years,” Rettig said of Boiron. “We are both very excited to jump into the work.”
Rettig will report to Ryan Wyatt, president of Polygon Labs, which is the development and growth team for the decentralized Polygon protocol. Wyatt said in a statement that Rettig will help Polygon “drive mass adoption of blockchain-based frameworks.”
Polygon restructured its various operations earlier this year under the Polygon Labs umbrella, according to the company. Polygon itself, as a matter of protocol, has no employees, all of whom now work for Polygon Labs, which works with various law firms but whose primary outside counsel is Latham & Watkins, the company said.
In recent months, Polygon has embarked on a hiring spree, including adding Nicholas Snow of Amazon.com Inc. as general counsel. Polygon also picked up Alexander Rozman, a former head of financial crime compliance at CLS Bank International, to be its global head of compliance.
Last year, Rettig joined the board of Silvergate Capital Corp., a bank that has been caught up in the fallout from the collapse of the crypto exchange FTX.
