54 Key crypto hires, exits and moves: July 2022

It was a mixed month for crypto industry hiring in July as some firms continued pushing to expand their headcounts, while others stepped back from the limelight. 

Big names including Moonpay, Animoca Brands and Cake DeFi each made multiple C-suite hires. These firms not only acquired talent from other crypto firms such as Coinbase and Block, but also from traditional internet and finance firms such as McKinsey, Tencent and JPMorgan Chase. 

The NFT world also saw top-level talent come and go. This includes a Grammy-winning musical producer IllaDaProducer joining Yuga Labs, where he will focus on music NFT development and NFT marketplace OpenSea co-founder Alex Atallah, who has left to take time off and then work on new projects. 

Hires 

• Binance US has appointed Jasmine Lee as CFO. Lee served as COO of micro-investing app company Acorns, a position she held since leaving PayPal in 2018, where she was chief operating and financial officer. 
• Parity Technologies, the startup behind Polkadot blockchain protocol, has refreshed its c-suite. Eran Barak will be the company's COO, Peter Ruchatz will be CMO and Fahmi Syed has been named CFO. 
• Moonpay has brought in a roster of names to its lineup of top executives. Asiff Hirji, former president of Figure and Coinbase, has joined as an advisor to CEO Ivan Soto-Wright; Jim Esposito, former head of operations at Block's Cash App, has been named COO and Akash Garg, former Block VP of engineering and Afterpay CTO, is now CTO. Garrett McManus also left Cash App to become Moonpay's head of marketing, while Tom Capone, previously head of Web3 at Creative Artist Agency, now leads MoonPay Studios. Abhay Mayalankar, former head of venture investments and M&A at Cisco Investments, has been named as head of corporate development. 
• Hong Kong-based blockchain software company Animoca Brands has also appointed several senior-level executives to the company. Alan Lau, former CEO of Tencent's insurance arm WeSure, has joined as chief business officer to oversee Animoca Brands’ portfolio companies and to lead M&A and business development. The company has also added Gerson Lehrman Group's Minh Do and Joanne Chan as co-COO and deputy CFO, respectively; Brian Chan as vice president of operations and projects from McKinsey; Tencent's Benny Ho as head of business development for new ventures; and Kenneth Shek, who's joining from Accenture, as director of project management.
• Bitcoin miner Riot Blockchain has hired Pierre Rochard as VP of research. He previously served as an advisor to Riot and a product manager for crypto exchange Kraken.  
• Pantera Capital, a crypto-focused investment firm, has named Samir Shah as COO. He left JPMorgan Chase after 12 years in the bank, most recently serving as the head of asset management sales. 
• The Algorand Foundation has appointed two senior executives. Eric Wragge has been named as global head of business development and capital markets, and he will also chair the foundation's investment committee. The firm also appointed John Woods as CTO. Woods previously served as Input Output Global's director of Cardano architecture. 
• Cake DeFi, a Singapore-based decentralized finance platform, has announced the appointment of several new senior executives. Former LinkedIn executive Glenn Huybrecht is joining as vice president of operations and COO; Henry Gunawan is becoming the firm's VP of compliance and Daniel Lo will serve as the company's general counsel. 
• The UK Treasury has appointed Ashley Adder as the chair of the Financial Conduct Authority. Adder, currently the CEO of Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission, is expected to take the role starting January 2023. 
• The UK's Financial Conduct Authority has also named Matthew Long as its first director of payments and digital assets, to oversee electronic money, payment and crypto-asset markets. Long, currently a director at National Crime Agency's National Economic Crime Command, will join the FCA in October. 
• Bulgaria-based crypto fintech SG Veteris has appointed Raul Malmstein to lead the firm's new office in Estonia, SG Veteris Estonia OÜ. Malmsten served as Estonian Financial Supervision Authority's management board chairman between 2006 and 2014. 
• London-listed fintech app Mode Global Holdings has named Jose Sanchez Loureda as CTO. Before joining Mode, Loureda served as the chief data and analytics officer at The Crown Estate, a business that manages land owned by The Queen. 
• Boris Revsin, co-founder of Republic Capital, joined venture capital Tribe Capital as a managing partner to oversee equity, crypto funds the firm's crypto incubation program. Revsin headed Republic Capital from September 2018 to April 2022. 
• Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, widely known as a16z, has added Lester Chen as a partner. Chen, who left his position as global head of gaming creators at YouTube, will join fellow a16z's general partners Andrew Chen, Jon Lai and James Gwertzman to work on Games Fund One, a16z's $600 million fund invested in gaming studios and player communities.
• Noah Sharp joined crypto trading firm BCB Group as deputy CEO to focus on the company's international scaling strategy. He left his chief banking officer position at Paysafe. 
• Video game commerce company Xsolla hired Sebastien Totté to lead the firm's operation in UK, France and Benelux region. His former position was Meta's strategic partner manager on its audience network.
• Fintech firm Bitt has hired some members of Criterio's central bank digital currency team. This includes James Shinn, who will become Bitt's executive director and economist, and Erik Bethel, who has been named as head of business development.
• Grammy-winning music producer Ray Illya Fraser, better known by his stage name IllaDaProducer, joined Yuga Labs as its community and partnership lead.
• UK-based investment management firm Coremont has appointed Akbar Sheriff as the company's global chief operating officer and partner. His former position was global head of custody at State Street.
• Dror Oren is starting a position as YouTube's senior director of product management. He will lead the video platform's development on web3, NFT and crypto. He left his previous position as director of product of Meta FinTech. 
• Decentralized exchange SushiSwap has nominated (but not yet hired) Jonathan Howard as Head Chef, an official title given to the project's CEO. Howard is currently the co-founder and CTO at NFT-focused firm BigHeadClub, according to his LinkedIn profile. If selected, he will start at his new position on August 16. 

Exits 

• Peng Zhong has left his position as the CEO of Ignite, a core development team within the Cosmos ecosystem. He resigned following founder Jae Kwon's return to the company, which was previously called Tendermint. 
• NFT marketplace OpenSea co-founder Alex Atallah leaves the company by July 30, but “will remain on the board.” According to a post on July 1, Atallah will take “at least a month off in August” before returning to “build new things.” 
• Whit Gibbs and Jodie Fisher have resigned from their position as CEO and CFO, respectively, of bitcoin mining firm Compass Mining. Their resignations were made as the company moved to address “multiple setbacks and disappointments."

Promotions 

• Blockchain company Algorand has appointed current COO W. Sean Ford as the firm's interim CEO following the departure of former CEO Steven Kokinos. In his previous role, Ford looked after product management, engineering, marketing and global community development. 
• Compass Mining CTO Paul Gosker and chief mining officer Thomas Heller were appointed as interim co-presidents and CEOs following the resignations of Whit Gibbs and Jodie Fisher. They will hold the role while the board is looking for people to fill the vacant positions on a permanent basis.  

Advisory and board positions 

• Following his resignation as Algorand CEO, Steven Kokinos will remain in the company as a senior advisor until mid-2023. 
• Hiro, a developer tools company for Bitcoin builders, has appointed Julia Austin to join its board of directors. Austin is a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School and a founder of Good For Her, a non-profit community focusing on women entrepreneurs. 
• Distributed ledger technology venture capital and crypto asset hedge funds Aaro Capital is adding three names to its advisory board: METI Advisory AG founder and managing partner Mattia Rattaggi, Hedge Funds Investment Management CIO and managing director Tushar Patel and LumRisk head of multi-asset solutions Eric Bissonnier. 
• Dan Held joined Trust Machines as an advisor. Held is a co-founder of Zeroblock, which Blockchain.com acquired. His former position was director of growth marketing at Kraken but he remains a brand ambassador for the exchange. 

Office opening 

• Crypto custodian Hex Trust is opening its first European office in Milan, Italy. The office was opened ahead of the European Union's implementation of Markets in Cryptoassets regulation, which is expected to allow greater adoption of digital assets across the region.