The Superintendent of the Department of Financial Services of New York, Adrienne Harris, will leave the regulator next month, announced Monday.
Harris, a former White House assistant under former President Barack Obama, will start from NyDFS on October 17, 2025, said New York Governor Kathy Hochul in a statement. The Superintendent of Research and Executive Innovation of the Research and Innovation of the NYDFS Kaitlin Asrow will assume the position of interim chief of the agency. NYDFS was the first state regulator to issue specific rules for cryptographic companies with their historical Bitlicense, which entered into force 10 years ago.
In statements, Hochul and Harris were grateful, and Hochul said that Harris worked “every day for our financial system to work for New Yorkers, while rebuilding the department in an adequate regulator for the world’s financial capital.”
Harris assumed the position for the first time as an interim superintendent in August 2021, after Hochul nominated her for the role, and was confirmed by the New York State Senate the following January.
“He feels like yesterday and a life does, all at the same time,” Harris said about his four -year mandate earlier on Monday during an appearance in the Central of Integrity of Digital Assets Reform and Market organized by Solidus Labs.
At that time, he said, NYDFS had issued 11 different regulatory pieces to reinforce the regulator’s reference biticense.
“The industry had already changed so much from 2015 to 2021 when I entered, it was very important that we start adding meat to the bones of the regulation,” he said.
This included guidance to deal with stablcoins, blockchain analysis and coins listings, among other information, he said.
“I think it is a true testimony of what we have done with DFS that people in both cameras of Congress, people on both sides of the hall, come to us for our technical experience, for advice, by editions, many of which have been incorporated, not all, but in the bill of current market structure,” he said.
NYDFS also conducted compliance and actions, even in the Stablecoin Binance (BUSD) issued by the stablecoin paxos firm after an investigation dating from 2023.
