Senior Counsel, Transactions; Capital Markets

Responsibilities

Under the direction of the Assistant General Counsel – Transactions, you will play an immediate and direct role in complex commercial transactional work, supporting Circle's global capital markets business – including crypto exchanges, digital asset market makers, and institutional capital markets partners – as well as Circle's Arc network, a purpose-built Layer‑1 blockchain for stablecoin finance. We are looking for someone who is highly proactive, accountable, team‑oriented, capable of managing multiple competing priorities, and who is excited to join a lean team that executes on a variety of novel and complex legal issues at the cutting edge of crypto and global finance.

• Serve as a trusted legal partner to Circle's capital markets business development team, working collaboratively and building strong lines of communication across global deal teams – with a 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 – addressing legal risk in business‑centric ways with the goal of strengthening commercial partnerships and advancing revenue opportunities.
• Support Arc's capital markets go‑to‑market, including drafting and negotiating agreements with exchanges, liquidity providers, validators, and institutional partners participating in Arc's lending, borrowing, FX, and tokenized asset use cases.
• Support the creation and expansion of contract templates and playbooks for capital markets transaction types, including exchange, market maker, and digital asset collateral frameworks, to increase speed and consistency across the deal pipeline.
• Aid in the development and implementation of processes, procedures, and metrics (including efficient contracting workflows) to increase the overall effectiveness of legal services provided 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 counter parties globally.
• Remain current on developments in crypto capital markets, digital assets, tokenization, stable coins, and blockchain infrastructure – including Arc's role as a settlement and capital markets layer – to provide sound, practical transactional advice across Circle's institutional go‑to‑market motion.

You are passionate about financial technology and the potential of cryptocurrency and blockchains – a team player with a sense of humor who enjoys both learning and mentoring. Commercially minded, you keep the business objective front and center and communicate complex ideas clearly, both verbally and in writing, in a way that allows clients to act on them. You thrive in evolving, fast‑moving environments, manage multiple priorities with ease, and exercise sound judgment under pressure – equally comfortable working autonomously and collaborating as part of a team.

You are obsessively organized, energetic, and deeply accountable, with a strong sense of ownership over your actions and decisions.

• 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 Trad Fi capital markets concepts – including 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, with a focus on capital markets,…