Blockchain payments provider BitPay has hired its first general counsel, eight years after the Atlanta-based company was founded. Privacy expert Eden Doniger takes up the post of general counsel and chief compliance officer after nearly seven years at media giant Cox Enterprises, where she was assistant general counsel responsible for privacy and compliance.

At BitPay she takes over the compliance function from Jeremie Beaudry, who left the company in June to join UK-based cryptocurrency platform Celsius Network as its general counsel and chief compliance officer. 

BitPay said she would be responsible for overseeing the company’s legal, compliance and government affairs programmes.

Stephen Pair, CEO and co-founder of BitPay, said the company was ‘focused on augmenting its C-level executive team’.

Doniger said: “I was drawn to BitPay because I find blockchain technology fascinating, and I wanted to build the legal function for a cutting-edge tech company in Atlanta.”

BitPay, which processes over $1bn annually in blockchain payments, has offices in North America, Europe, and South America and has raised more than $70m in funding from investment firms including Founders Fund, Index Ventures, Virgin Group, and Aquiline Technology Growth.

Last month, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan announced it was taking payments in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies having received its first cryptocurrency fee payment via BitPay.

In July last year the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) granted BitPay a virtual currency licence.