Barack Obama’s ex-chief of staff joins crypto firm Forteus as partner

Bill Daley, who’s navigated both Wall Street and the West Wing, is now betting on crypto, taking a key role at crypto manager Forteus as Washington warms to the sector.

Bill Daley, the former White House chief of staff to Barack Obama and a veteran of Wall Street and Washington, is now diving into digital assets, joining crypto investment firm Numeus Group’s Forteus management division, Bloomberg reports.

Daley, who was former President Barack Obama’s chief of staff, and Secretary of Commerce under President Bill Clinton, will work within Forteus, the asset-management arm of Numeus Group, to woo big investors, jumping in as the industry gains steam under President Donald Trump’s push to make the U.S. the world’s crypto hub.

Founded in 2021 by Two Sigma alum Nobel Gulati, Numeus manages more than $130 million in assets and has offices in Switzerland, New York, London, and Mauritius. In a statement shared with Bloomberg, Daley said it’s now “a time of renewed optimism and regulatory progress for the crypto industry in the U.S.”

The 76-year-old has spent decades bouncing between finance and government. In 2024, Daley retired as vice chairman of public affairs at Wells Fargo after similar roles at BNY Mellon and JPMorgan.

In late 2024, Forteus partnered with crypto exchange OKX and custodian Komainu to address two persistent institutional hurdles in crypto markets: security concerns, and trading flexibility.

The arrangement allows the asset manager to execute trades on OKX’s platform around the clock while client assets remain securely held in Komainu’s cold storage, resolving the industry’s longstanding either-or proposition for institutional players.