Tag: executive move

Kraken Hires Carrie Dolan as Chief Financial Officer to Bolster Rapid Growth

Kraken, a major US-based cryptocurrency exchange, announced Tuesday the appointment of Carrie Dolan as the company’s new chief financial officer (CFO).

The crypto firm hired the executive as part of its effort to bolster its executive leadership team. Dolan is a recognized financial services veteran in Fortune 500 companies and high-growth consumer fintech.

In her new role, Dolan will perform a key role in executing Kraken’s strategy to become the crypto platform of choice for both retail and professional investors.

Prior to joining Kraken, Dolan worked at Tradeshift, a digital payments and trade finance platform, where she successfully assisted the firm in growing and scaling its business. Before moving to Tradeshift, Dolan led technology companies such as Lending Club, Metromile, Charles Schwab, and Chevron. While working at Lending Club, she managed the company’s IPO activities in 2014 and raised $1 billion in capital and made it one of the top 10 U.S.-based internet public offerings.

Dolan served as the treasurer for Charles Schwab and CFO for the Schwab Bank in her earlier career activities. To complement her professional success, a number of industry groups have recognized Dolan for her support for the advancement of women, commitment to her profession, and service to her community.

Jesse Powell, Kraken CEO, talked about the development and said: “As a rapidly growing crypto platform, finance is the cornerstone of everything we do. Carrie exemplifies everything we could hope for in a CFO and we welcome her to the Kraken team. Carrie is a big believer in the future of crypto and brings a strong track record of experience across legacy finance, fintech startups and global marketplaces. I’m very confident that Carrie’s talent, drive and record of scaling disruptive companies in regulated industries, will be instrumental in further expanding our business and laying the foundation for the next growth stage for our company.”

Meanwhile, Dolan also commented about her appointment and stated, “the world has recently realized that crypto is here to stay as mainstream adoption accelerates to an unprecedented pace. Kraken is at the forefront of driving mass awareness for the value and opportunity the technology brings.” 

“I’m excited to join this incredible company at a pivotal time and work with the rest of the team to continue delivering on Kraken’s mission to drive mainstream adoption by making sure crypto is understood, easily accessible and trusted.”

Expanding Product Lines

The addition of Dolan to its executive team is the latest in a series of strategic hires at Kraken, which recently includes the appointment of Samantha Holloway as the company’s executive chairperson and Mike Davidson as Vice President of Design. The new hires are having a huge impact as the company grows into new markets. Launched in 2013, Kraken has about 7 million clients.

In June last year, Kraken launched its mobile app to the U.S as a response to fulfil the rising needs of retail investors who continue to flock to digital currencies. The Kraken App allows many users across the U.S. to securely purchase and sell over 50 crypto tokens from their mobile phones. The exchange launched the app in Europe earlier that year.

In December last year, Kraken acquired Staked, a non-custodial staking platform that enables investors in Proof-of-Stake (PoS) networks to securely and easily compound their holdings. The acquisition solidified Kraken’s position as a leading provider of staking services to institutions and consumers by expanding the number of supported networks and enabling a non-custodial alternative to its existing custodial staking service.

Abra Appoints Justin McMahan As Chief Financial Officer

Abra, a rapidly rising crypto wealth management platform based in San Francisco, announced on Wednesday the appointment of Justin McMahan as the company’s first-ever Chief Financial Officer, effective immediately.

McMahan’s appointment comes during a period of rapid growth for Abra. In the new role, McMahan will be tasked with optimizing the company’s financial performance, ensuring compliance with global accounting standards and helping direct Abra’s growth strategy in the forthcoming years.

McMahan joins Abra from Tower Research Capital, a high-frequency trading company, where he served as Managing Director and Global Treasurer.

McMahan is a veteran finance executive with more than 20 years of experience in trading, fintech, capital markets, wealth management, and asset management. Most recently, he served senior roles at Tower Research Capital.

Before working at Tower Research, McMahan was a Managing Director and Head of Operations of Treasury & Client Services at Serengeti Asset Management, an investment management company. Prior to joining Serengeti, he worked at Morgan Stanley for 13 years, where he held several roles, including Executive Director of Prime Brokerage Capital Introductions & Risk.

Bill Barhydt, the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Abra, talked about the development and said: “Justin is an exceptional addition to the firm as we continue to build out and differentiate our team with accomplished professionals across digital assets, traditional finance, and wealth management. Justin’s proven track record in executing transformational financial services solutions and leading businesses through dynamic stages of their evolution will be instrumental as we expand our platform and democratize access to the crypto economy.”

Meanwhile, McMahan also commented about his appointment: “Abra has cemented itself as a dominant player in this disruptive space, and I am humbled to join this extremely talented team that provides customers with truly unique access to cryptocurrency markets.”

Enabling Customers’ Access to Digital Assets

Abra was founded in 2015, by Bill Barhydt, a former fixed-income analyst for investment bank Goldman Sachs and former director of Netscape Communications Corporation.

Abra operates a crypto wallet with a built-in crypto swap service, a cryptocurrency lending service, and a crypto staking and high yield savings service. The firm claims to serve more than 1 million users with over $1.5 billion in assets under management.

In March 2018, Abra added support for 20 new cryptocurrencies including Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Stellar into its platform.

In September last year, as reported by Blockchain.News, Abra raised $55 million in a Series C funding led by the Stellar Development Foundation, including other investors such as GNIA, Blockchain Capital, Kingsway Capital, Tiga Investment, among others.

Abra used the funds to expand its new offerings (which include wealth management, trading, and payments) with Stellar as a blockchain back-end and democratize access to them for new customers in developing nations.

Since 2020, Abra has witnessed “tremendous” growth. The firm recorded a ten-fold increase in revenues.

Chainlink Labs Appoints Diem CTO Dahlia Malkhi as CRO

Chainlink Labs, a US-based operator of an online contract management platform, announced Tuesday the appointment of Dr. Dahlia Malkhi, former Diem Association Chief Technology Officer, as its Chief Research Officer.

In her new role, Malkh will manage Chainlink’s data science and advanced analytics departments and help support the growth of the data oracle network.

Dr. Malkhi joins Chainlink Labs from the Diem Association, where she was the Chief Technology Officer, lead maintainer and lead researcher at Novi. Before working at Diem, Dr. Malkhi co-founded VMware Research where she served as a principal researcher and spent more than ten years at Microsoft Research. Besides that, Dr. Malkhi served as a tenured associate professor of computer science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She has authored over 100 publications with contributions to wide aspects of the security and reliability of distributed systems.

Sergey Nazarov, CEO of Chainlink Labs, commented about Malkhi’s appointment and said: “As Chainlink Labs continues to build the secure infrastructure necessary to increase Web3 adoption and create a world powered by cryptographic truth, we are breaking new ground in the areas of cryptography and mathematics and need the best and brightest minds to join us in solving some of the world’s hardest problems. Dahlia is one of the foremost experts on decentralized systems consensus, a critical factor in ensuring security, scalability, and performance across the blockchain ecosystem, making her an ideal addition to the Chainlink Labs research team.”

Leveraging Blockchain for Businesses and Enterprise Apps

The latest hiring is part of Chainlink’s recent appointments to ensure its business growth. Late last year, Chainlink hired Mike Derezin, former Vice President at LinkedIn, as its Chief Operating Officer. Also, in December last year, Eric Schmidt, the former Google CEO, joined Chainlink Labs as a Strategic Advisor, to help Chainlink Labs — the developer behind blockchain oracle solution provider Chainlink — to achieve its multi-chain interoperability goals.

In May last year, Chainlink joined the Hedera governing council, a group of diverse organizations responsible for stewarding the Hedera network (a decentralized public network where anyone can build applications). Most of the existing council members are large firms such as Avery Dennison, Boeing, Dentons, Deutsche Telekom, DLA Piper, EDF, eftpos, FIS, Google, IBM, LG, Magalu, Nomura, Shinhan Bank, Standard Bank, Swirlds, Tata Communications, UCL, WIPRO and Zain. 

Joining the Hedera Governing Council made Chainlink the default oracle provider for enterprise applications. In a centralized world, software programs typically use external feeds for data like stock prices or exchange rates. In the decentralized world, blockchains use oracles, which are similar to feeds. Chainlink provides decentralized oracles and connects smart contracts to a wide range of off-chain data sources and computations, such as asset prices, IoT devices, web APIs, payment systems, and many more. 

Brazilian Asset Manager Hashdex Appoints Laurent Kssis as Managing Director

Hashdex, a fintech investment management firm based in Brazil, announced Tuesday the appointment of Laurent Kssis as Managing Director and Head of Europe.

In the new role, Mr. Kssis is expected to accelerate Hashdex’s European expansion as part of the company’s ongoing commitment to help investors across the globe better understand and gain diversified exposure to the crypto asset class.

Hashdex said Mr. Kssis brings an extensive experience in crypto asset and European crypto exchange-traded fund (“ETFs”) management practices to the company.

Mostly recently, Mr. Kssis served as Managing Director and Global Head of ETPs at Swiss issuer 21Shares. He managed the listing of more than 25 crypto ETPs across several European regulated exchanges. He also served on the issuer’s board of directors, where his presence was valuable in developing and pushing for innovative single tracker product launches for its European expansion.

Before joining 21Shares, Kssis worked as the CEO of the Swedish based crypto issuer XBT Provider AB, nowadays popularly known as CoinShares company. Prior to that, Mr. Kssis acquired over 15 years of experience in managing ETFs as well as professional experience in leading major companies, including Labranche, Bluefin, and Societe Generale.

Mr. Kssis was also actively involved in the primary and secondary capital markets, where he served several European ETF issuers, including Lyxor and IndeXchange (now Blackrock). In 2015, he led Coinsilium group in becoming the first blockchain venture company to IPO on the UK stock exchange, where he was subsequently appointed Non-Executive Chairman. Recently, Mr. Kssis stepped down as a board member of Swedish Index Provider Vinter Co after three years of service.

Marcelo Sampaio, Co-Founder & CEO of Hashdex, talked about Kssis appointment and said: “His (Kssis) background in crypto exchange-traded products, particularly in Switzerland – which has become the leading venue for listing crypto ETPs – will be invaluable in supporting Hashdex…We are honoured to have him join our team.”

Bridging Traditional Finance with Digital Asset Solutions

Early this month, Hashdex launched and listed Web3 ETF on the Brazilian stock exchange, B3, to serve the growing investor demand for regulated exposure to crypto ETFs. Hashdex developed the crypto ETF to provide a diversified method for investing in Web3.

In January, Hashdex launched a decentralized finance ETF (DEFI11) that provides institutional and individual investors with diversified, safe, and regulated exposure to all DeFi ecosystem value chain segments. The DeFi ETF enables investors to invest in DeFi assets such as Unisawap, AAVE, Compound, Maker, Yearn, Curve, Synthetix, and AMP.

Last February, Hashdex launched the world’s first crypto exchange-traded fund (ETF) that enables over 250,000 investors to add cryptocurrency to their portfolios. The Hashdex Nasdaq Crypto Index ETF is available for trading on the Bermuda Stock Exchange (BSX) for accredited non-U.S. institutional investors to gain exposure to the crypto market.

Image source: Hashdex

The Crypto Council for Innovation Announces First-Ever Leadership Team

On Thursday, the Crypto Council for Innovation (CCI), a global alliance of crypto industry organizations, announced its first executive team to strengthen its leadership role and guide its work in policy advocacy and raising awareness of the benefits of digital currency.

The council made five appointments who are set to join the existing executive director Sheila Warren.

The association hired Former Senator Cory Gardner to serve as CCI’s chief strategist of political affairs; Amanda Russo, a global communications expert who formerly worked with the World Economic Forum, to serve as the council’s new director of communications; and Annie Dizon, formerly of the nonprofit TechSoup, as CCI’s director of operations.

The council appointed three executives to join the current CEO, Sheila Warren, in executing CCI’s efforts toward educating regulators, policymakers, and people around the globe about the transformational promise of cryptocurrency.

Meanwhile, the association also hired former Algorand Foundation CEO Sean Lee to advise the council on its Asia-Pacific expansion. The council also appointed Katherine Wu, a venture partner at Archetype, as its first research fellow.

In a statement, Sheila Warren, the group’s CEO, talked about the development and said: “The combined leadership and global experience of our new team members will fortify CCI’s expertise in a crucial moment, both within our organization and across the crypto industry worldwide.”

Promoting Innovation behind Crypto

Sheila Warren left working for the World Economic Forum and joined the CCI as executive director in January.

Later in February, the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange became a new Crypto Council for Innovation member. Gemini joined the list of other crypto-friendly firms to encourage policymakers to draft a robust regulatory structure.

The council is backed by several crypto exchanges and crypto investment firms. Some of the top-tier firms in the list include Andreessen Horowitz, Coinbase exchange, Jack Dorsey-owned Block (earlier Square), Fidelity Digital Assets, Paradigm, Ribbit Capital, etc.

Established in April 2021 as a joint effort by Coinbase and Block, the CCI strives to build interactions with regulatory organizations and government authorities, highlighting the potential of cryptocurrencies.

Last July, the council organized a virtual gathering called ‘The ₿ Word’ to discuss Bitcoin adoption in the sector. The event became a huge success with speeches from global personalities such as Elon Musk of Tesla and Jack Dorsey.

The Crypto Council for Innovation is a global alliance of crypto industry leaders that works to demonstrate the transformational promise of crypto assets and communicate their benefits to policymakers, regulators, and people worldwide.

Coinbase Hires Former Snapchat Indian Executive to Lead Emerging Markets Business

Coinbase Inc, a global crypto exchange headquartered in the US, announced Sunday the appointment of Durgesh Kaushik – the former Managing Director in charge of Snapchat India and South Asia market development – to lead the exchange’s growth in emerging markets.

Kaushik, who joined Snap Inc, a US camera and social media company, in 2019 left the firm late last month. In the last year, Snap saw India’s daily active users rose150% year-on-year, hitting 100 million monthly active users.

At Coinbase, Kaushik will be in charge of scaling the exchange’s operations in India and also supporting the exchange’s entry into other markets in the Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and the Americas.

Nana Murugesan, the VP of International and Business Development at Coinbase, confirmed Kaushik’s appointment and said: “We’re excited to confirm that Durgesh Kaushik will be joining Coinbase on May 9 as our senior director for market expansion….His appointment to this global leadership role is an important step toward our entry in India, as well as our mission to increase economic freedom around the world.”

Looking at Global Markets

In 2019, Coinbase started launching its crypto trading platform in more markets as the company continues to make an “aggressive” international push.

So far Coinbase has expanded its product to several European countries and overseas territories, including Guernsey, Iceland, Lithuania, Andorra, Gibraltar, and the Isle of Man. Some of the markets that the firm is expanding into are becoming increasingly popular destinations for crypto use and related blockchain start-ups.

Last month, Coinbase launched its crypto trading in India and is working to widen its product offerings in the country.

While Coinbase’s India tech hub has 300 full-time staff, the firm plans to hire over 1,000 people in the nation this year. Coinbase Ventures, the company’s venture capital arm, has already invested $150 million in local Indian tech firms in the Web3 and crypto space and is identifying new opportunities to help Indian founders scale.

Riot Blockchain Hires Nomura M&A Banker Jason Chung as Corporate Development Head

Riot Blockchain Inc, a Bitcoin infrastructure company based in Colorado, announced on Wednesday that it has hired investment banker Jason Chung from Nomura Holdings Inc as its head of corporate development.

Until recently, Chung was a Hong Kong-based managing director at Nomura. In this new role, Chung will lead corporate development affairs at Riot Blockchain, including mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and be responsible for building a superior corporate development group that drives the firm’s strategic growth. He will also assist the crypto firm with its financing strategy.

The former banker comes to Riot Blockchain with over 15 years of investment banking and corporate development experience. Previously, he served as a Managing Director in the mergers and acquisitions at Nomura, a role that he executed for more than five years, first based in New York and then in Hong Kong.

Before that, Chung was at Societe Generale SA, an investment banking company in New York, where he worked as a Vice President of M&A for eight years, according to his LinkedIn profile.

As 2022 continues to be the year of acquisitions, it appears that Riot Blockchain is still looking to bolster its business. The firm is hiring a Corporate Development Director to identify inorganic growth opportunities through acquisitions. The move is important as the current crypto space is faced with major acquisitions.

Riot Blockchain has recently made a number of acquisitions with the goal of increasing its US footprint in the global bitcoin mining landscape.

In April last year, the Nasdaq-listed mining company acquired Whinstone US, Inc. data centre operations in Texas.

Last December, Riot Blockchain acquired Ferrie Franzmann Industries LLC, doing business as ESS Metron, a company that designs and produces electrical equipment. ESS Metron is a key supplier of Riot’s Whinstone Bitcoin mining commercial data centre facility and a significant component in its effort to expand to 700 megawatts (MW) and scale its Bitcoin mining operations.

As per the report, Riot Blockchain owns the largest Bitcoin mining and hosting facility in North America through its subsidiary Whinstone US.

Allison Herren Lee Steps Down as US SEC Commissioner

Democrat Allison Herren Lee stepped down from her position as a Commissioner of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday after serving the regulator for three years.

In a statement, her fellow commissioners said: “Allison has been a stalwart advocate for strong and stable markets, including by emphasizing the need for market participants to maintain the highest ethical standards. She has been a champion for stronger climate disclosures, whistleblower protections, and individual accountability for violations of the securities laws.”

Lee was nominated by President Trump to fill one of the Democratic seats on the commission in the spring of 2019. She was confirmed in July of that year.

Lee started working at the SEC in 2005, where she served various roles including being a counsel to former Commissioner Kara Stein and a senior counsel in the Division of Enforcement’s Complex Financial Instruments Unit.

Lee also briefly served as acting SEC chairperson under President Biden from January 2021 until Gary Gensler was appointed in April to fill the role on a permanent basis.  

Her departure follows SEC Republican commissioner Elad Roisman, who vacated his seat in January of this year.

In June, Mr. Mark T. Uyeda was appointed by the Biden administration to fill up the Republican seat vacated by former commissioner Elad Roisman. Lee’s departure has given the Biden administration another open seat to fill at the SEC.

The SEC is now left with just four members: Mr. Gensler, Democrat Caroline Crenshaw, Republican Hester Peirce, and Republican Mark T. Uyeda.

The commission normally operates with five members. President Biden will need to nominate another Democrat to fill an open seat vacated by Lee.

Lee has been a vocal proponent of the SEC mandating climate-related disclosures for public companies as well as investment firms, broker-dealers, and investment advisers. She also argued in favor of enhanced disclosures concerning other environmental, social, and governance (ESG) matters and political contributions.

Lee recently supported a proposed rule for enhanced disclosures for private equity and hedge funds. She also recently encouraged the SEC to create a better system to hold securities lawyers accountable for providing bad advice to their public company clients.

In her public remarks, Lee expressed skepticism surrounding the crypto market. In March, she said digital assets mostly defy existing regulations and laws.

BingX Is Expanding Global Workforce Despite Crypto Winter

BingX, a major social trading exchange based in Singapore, announced on Friday that it is actively hiring for roles across its global offices despite the current market downturn.

Established in 2018, BingX is a crypto copy trading exchange that offers spot, derivatives, and copy trading services to more than 100 nations worldwide.

The exchange is looking to fill more than 200 positions globally. Among some of the positions open are PR managers, product development, customer service and affiliates in Germany, South Korea, Turkey, Japan, Vietnam, Russia, and Spain.

Since the beginning of the second quarter this year, the crypto market has been on a downward trend, which has led several companies to either freeze hiring or enforce headcount reductions.

The overall market sentiments have not deterred BingX from enhancing its offerings and ensuring the ever-changing needs of its users are fulfilled.

Elvisco Carrington, BingX PR and Communications Director, commented: “BingX will accelerate its growth, even amidst such challenging times. We have always hired carefully and will continue to do so. This so-called crypto winter presents a rare chance for us to tap on some of the industry’s best talents and we will leverage on that.”

Different Responses to Bear Market 

The previous few years have been a boom period for the crypto sector, with a market-wide rise in prices driving an expansion in the industry.

That is not the case currently as the bearish conditions started being witnessed in April 2022 and have unsurprisingly put the brakes on such growth.

Many major crypto-related companies announced layoffs, including Coinbase, Crypto.com, and BlockFi, among others, while the industry recorded a loss of 1,700 jobs in June alone.

Despite mass layoffs by major market participants, there are firms that are accelerating their hiring process.

In June, Binance announced its plans to hire more than 2,000 people across Europe, Asia, South America, and the Middle East.

Other firm companies such as Kraken, ConsenSys, Polygon, Chainlink Labs, Aave, and Uniswap Labs recently posted hundreds of job opportunities amid crashing crypto markets.

Bankrupt Crypto Lender Voyager's CFO To Step Down Months After Appointment

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Ashwin Prithipaul, the Chief Financial Officer of bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital Ltd, is expected to leave the company. The crypto firm said on Friday that the Finance Head would resign after a “transition period” to pursue other opportunities and that Chief Executive Officer Stephen Ehrlich will assume the role in the interim.

Prithipaul has served as CFO of the firm since May, according to his LinkedIn profile. In the past, he was the CFO at crypto exchange DriveDigital for nine months, and before that he was the CFO at crypto investment firm Galaxy Digital.

Voyager Digital collapsed due to its outstanding liquidity issues during the harsh winter period that started in May this year. As a result, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July to help contain the situation after suspending withdrawals on its platform.

The crypto winter triggered by the collapse of the algorithmic Terra and its ecosystem led to the crash of almost all the cryptocurrencies and threw the whole industry into crisis.

Many crypto-related firms struggled to keep their balance. Voyager became one of the highest-profile crypto companies to go out of business amid this year’s market crash. The firm filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July with outstanding liabilities of as much as $10 billion.

The company’s downfall came shortly after one of its largest debtors, the Singapore-based crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC), filed for bankruptcy in July, leaving its user funds at risk. 3AC owed Voyager more than $650 million in the stablecoin USDC and Bitcoin.

Voyager initiated the process of selling off its assets through auction exercise at the beginning of this month. The auction for the New York-based firm’s assets started on September 13.

Crypto exchanges Binance and FTX have reportedly made the top bids of approximately $50 million each for Voyager’s assets. But Binance’s current bid is considered slightly higher than that offered by FTX. Other bidders reportedly include digital asset investment manager Wave Financial and digital currency trading platform CrossTower.

The announcement for the winning bid is expected on September 29, although it could come earlier before that date.

Image source: https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/bankrupt-crypto-lender-voyagers-cfo-exit-months-after-appointment-2022-09-23/

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