Senior Counsel, Transactions (Capital Markets)

As Senior Counsel, Transactions (Capital Markets) at Circle, you will provide direct legal support to Circle's global capital markets business and Arc network. Reporting to the Assistant General Counsel - Transactions, you'll work on complex commercial transactional matters spanning crypto exchanges, digital asset market makers, institutional capital markets partnerships, and Arc's purpose-built Layer-1 blockchain for stablecoin finance.

What you'll do

• Serve as trusted legal counsel to Circle's capital markets business development team, with primary focus on supporting crypto exchange partnerships, digital asset market maker agreements, and institutional capital markets transactions globally.
• Structure, negotiate, and draft complex crypto, fintech, and capital markets agreements including exchange listing and integration agreements, market maker and liquidity provision agreements, co-funding, credit and collateral arrangements, and USYC tokenized collateral transactions.
• Support Arc's capital markets go-to-market by drafting and negotiating agreements with exchanges, liquidity providers, validators, and institutional partners participating in Arc's lending, borrowing, FX, and tokenized asset use cases.
• Build and expand contract templates and playbooks for capital markets transaction types to increase speed and consistency across the deal pipeline.
• Develop and implement processes, procedures, and metrics to increase effectiveness of legal services to global capital markets teams.
• Assist business leaders with contract interpretation and management as they execute deals with exchanges, trading firms, custodians, and other institutional counterparties.
• Stay current on developments in crypto capital markets, digital assets, tokenization, stablecoins, and blockchain infrastructure to provide sound transactional advice.

What you bring

• 10+ years of legal experience in capital markets, crypto, or financial services.
• 3+ years of prior experience at a top-tier law firm.
• J.D. (or foreign equivalent) and active membership in at least one U.S. State Bar.
• Extensive experience drafting and negotiating complex crypto, fintech, and capital markets agreements, including exchange, market maker, liquidity provision, collateral, and digital asset transactions.
• Familiarity with traditional finance capital markets concepts such as derivatives, structured products, collateral management, and market infrastructure, and how these intersect with digital asset and blockchain ecosystems.
• Experience collaborating with cross-functional teams on high-impact institutional partnerships focused on capital markets, exchanges, and market maker business.
• Ability to manage multiple initiatives and transactions requiring analysis of relevant laws, regulations, and industry standards, ideally in a financial services, fintech, or crypto environment.
• Ability to identify regulatory, tax, accounting, and other potential implications and coordinate across stakeholders on transactions.
• Comfort leveraging AI tools to streamline routine tasks while exercising independent legal judgment and maintaining full responsibility for reviewing and validating outputs.
• Willingness to participate in negotiation calls outside standard business hours to support global deal teams.

Nice to have

• Familiarity with the legal and regulatory landscape across key global markets relevant to Circle's business, including digital assets, stablecoins, tokenization, and capital markets.
• Prior exposure to ISDA documentation, master trading agreements, or other capital markets framework agreements.
• Prior experience working with the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Financial Supervisory Service regulations.
• Experience with Slack, Apple MacOS, ChatGPT and other AI tools, and GSuite.

About Circle

Circle (NYSE: CRCL) is a leading internet financial platform company building the foundation of a more open, global economy through digital assets, payment applications, and programmable blockchain infrastructure. Circle's platform includes USDC, the world's largest regulated stablecoin network, the Circle Payments Network for global money movement, and Arc, an enterprise-grade blockchain for stablecoin finance.