Bim Afolami, the member of parliament for Hitchin and Harpenden, was appointed economic secretary to the U.K. Treasury on Monday, a role that includes responsibility for crypto and central bank digital currency (CBDC) policy.

Afolami replaces Andrew Griffith, who had said he wanted the country to be a crypto hub despite the collapse of crypto exchange FTX. Griffith also helped see through the Financial Services and Markets Bill that gave regulators more power over crypto during his tenure.

Last year, Afolami met with executives from crypto exchange Coinbase to discuss the financial services environment. "It is vitally important that we have an appropriate regulatory regime for financial services," he wrote on his website.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has been reshaping his cabinet ahead of the next general election, which must be held by 2025. On Monday, Home Secretary Suella Braverman was fired and replaced by James Cleverly, who was himself unexpectedly replaced as foreign secretary by former Prime Minister David Cameron.

Griffith became minister of state for the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, formed earlier this year. That department will handle the country's metaverse strategy.

UPDATE (Nov. 14, 12:10 UTC): Replaces lead photo

Crypto UK CBDC Government

Camomile Shumba

Camomile Shumba is a CoinDesk regulatory reporter based in the UK. Previously, Shumba interned at Business Insider and Bloomberg. Camomile has featured in Harpers Bazaar, Red, the BBC, Black Ballad, Journalism.co.uk, Cryptopolitan.com and South West Londoner. Shumba studied politics, philosophy and economics as a combined degree at the University of East Anglia before doing a postgraduate degree in multimedia journalism. While she did her undergraduate degree she had an award-winning radio show on making a difference. She does not currently hold value in any digital currencies or projects.