Charles Cascarilla is the CEO and co-founder of Paxos, the company issuing USDP. In 2005, he co-founded Cedar Hill Capital Partners, an institutional asset management complex, and in 2012, he established Liberty City Ventures, a venture capital subsidiary. ^[1]

Early Life & Education

Cascarilla holds a Bachelor of Business Administration and Finance from the University of Notre Dame. He is a Certified Financial Analyst by the CFA Institute. ^[2]

Career

Cascarilla has been a Founding Board Member of the Association for Digital Asset Markets (ADAM) since November 2018. He is also a Partner at Liberty City Ventures, an early stage growth fund, since July 2012. Liberty City Ventures focuses on supporting visionary entrepreneurs leading disruptive internet/mobile startups, with a particular interest in areas such as media, ecommerce, payments, financial services, and brand engagement. ^[2]

Charles was a Co-Founder, Portfolio Manager, and Head of Research at Cedar Hill Capital Partners, an institutional asset management complex, from 2004 to January 2014. At Cedar Hill Capital Partners, he managed various funds, including hedge, venture, and private equity funds, with a focus on global financial services and related industries. Prior to that, Charles worked as a Financial Analyst at Goldman Sachs from January 2000 to September 2001. ^[2]

Paxos

In June 2014, he co founded itBit, which would be rebranded as Paxos in September 2016. The company was rebranded with the intention of emphasizing the company's objective to utilize consensus-driven blockchain technology in order to revolutionize the collaboration between global financial institutions. ^[3]

“We wanted to start an exchange that would operate on the same level of sophistication as the global exchanges of traditional finance: powerful enough to trade large volumes, protected by bank-level security, powered by state-of-the-art technology, and most importantly, regulatorily compliant and trustworthy.”

Paxos is the issuer of USDP, a stablecoin pegged to the US Dollar. ^[3]

In February 2023, the Department of Financial Services (DFS) directed Paxos to cease the minting of BUSD because of "numerous outstanding concerns regarding Paxos' supervision of its association with Binance”. The notice followed an SEC investigation into Paxos and its relationship with Binance, whose stablecoin it issued, which concluded that the company violated securities laws. As a response, Cascarilla affirmed that BUSD did not meet the conditions to be considered a security. ^[4][5]

The prevailing precedents used to identify securities in the US are known as the Howey Test and the Reves Test. Under both tests, BUSD does not meet the criteria to be a security. Our stablecoins are always backed by cash and equivalents–dollars and US Treasury bills, but never securities.  We are engaged in constructive discussions with the SEC, and we look forward to continuing that dialogue in private.