Mark Hays is the Associate Director for Cryptocurrency and Financial Technology with AFR/AFREF and with Demand Progress. He works to ensure effective regulatory oversight of cryptocurrency and other financial technologies. Previously, Mark was the Anti-Money Laundering Campaign Director at Global Witness, where he led advocacy efforts to secure financial transparency measures, including legislation requiring shell companies – often used to facilitate corruption and financial crime – to reveal their true owners. In other roles, Hays has led advocacy work at the intersection of business, human rights, and the environment for a range of organizations, including The Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, Greenpeace, Mighty Earth, NAACP, Public Citizen, The Sierra Club, Waxman Strategies, and others.
Featured content for Mark Hays
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Statement: Mark Hays, AFR and Demand Progress Associate Director, Crypto and Fintech, on new FBI Annual Report on Internet Financial Crime Losses to Crypto and other Scams
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Yesterday, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) released its annual Internet Crime Report, which analyses complaints received from online financial crime survivors each year to determine the scope and scale of such criminal activity and who is most impacted by it.
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Surging Crypto Crimewave Should be a Congressional Wake up Call
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Last week, the FBI reported that online crypto crime continues to surge and is taking a bigger bite out of people’s pockets than ever.
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Listen: Gotcha! The Crypto Grift w/ Mark Hays
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Mark Hays, Associate Director of Cryptocurrency and Financial Technology at Americans for Financial Reform, guested on the “Gotcha!” podcast to speak with host Alix Dunn about the risk and dangers associated with cryptocurrency.
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Virtual Town Hall: Uncovering Trump’s Crypto Corruption
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On March 5th, 2026, AFR hosted a virtual town hall about the pipeline of crypto corruption, President Trump’s crypto conflicts of interest, how crypto industry backed legislation could expose us all to crypto’s dangerous risks, and how we can fight back.
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Rolling Stone: Crypto Won Big in 2024. AI Is Angling to Do the Same in 2026
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Cryptocurrency expert Mark Hays of Americans for Financial Reform says that attempts to split the difference rarely work. “Some policymakers seem to think that they can have it both ways by conceding to industry interests in return for political support, while saying they also want to protect the public interest. … It’s a shaky bet at best, selling out principles for uncertain return.”