Executive Director
Coalition for Tokenized Markets (CTM)
Chris Hayes
Chris Hayes serves as Executive Director of CTM, and is a Partner at Thorn Run Partners (TRP), a top-10 bipartisan government relations firm.
He has more than 15 years of experience at the intersection of financial services, emerging technology, and public policy. He leads work across digital assets, tokenization and broader financial services policy, helping shape legislation and regulation in the United States and abroad. With a deep understanding of Washington and an extensive network across Congress and federal agencies, including the SEC, Treasury, and the banking regulators, Chris develops policy strategies that deliver meaningful business value.
Before joining Thorn Run Partners, Chris co-founded and served as President of Capitol Asset Strategies, a consulting firm focused on regulatory, policy, and strategic issues in financial services and emerging technology. At CAS, he helped crypto clients advance the bipartisan Congressional Review Act resolution disapproving the IRS Broker Rule and shape the U.S. stablecoin framework established by the GENIUS Act.
Chris previously worked directly in the digital asset industry as Head of Global Government Relations for the Celo Foundation, a Layer 1 blockchain, and led U.S. federal and state policy for Sorare SAS, a SoftBank-backed NFT gaming company. At Celo, he engaged on key provisions of the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation, including stablecoin and crypto market structure frameworks.
From 2017 to 2022, Chris built and led the global advocacy program at the Institutional Limited Partners Association, representing more than 650 institutional investors with over $2 trillion in assets under management. At ILPA, he led advocacy on legislation and SEC rules affecting private markets, spearheaded development of the ILPA Model Limited Partnership Agreement, and engaged on the SEC’s proposed Private Fund Adviser Rule, AIFMD II, tax, foreign investment, antitrust, and retail access issues.
Earlier in his career, Chris served as General Counsel and Co-Head of Government Affairs at the Small Business Investor Alliance, where he advocated for BDCs, SBICs, and middle-market private equity advisers. He helped create the SEC’s Office of the Advocate for Small Business Capital Formation and the permanent SEC Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee, and advanced legislation affecting private fund advisers and BDCs.
Chris also worked on broker-dealer and investment adviser issues at the Financial Services Institute, conducted insider trading investigations at FINRA, and served as a legal fellow on the Senate Banking Committee under Senator Chris Dodd during the drafting of Dodd-Frank.
Chris remains active as an advisor, investor, and fundraiser in the private markets. He previously advised Aumni, a private fund legal analytics platform acquired by J.P. Morgan, and currently serves on the advisory board of Steward Asset Management. He holds a J.D. from the University of San Diego School of Law and a B.A. from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is admitted to the bar in California and the District of Columbia and lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Catherine, and their two daughters.
Our Founding Members
