Key crypto hires, exits and moves: January 2022

Despite a slowdown in crypto hiring toward the end of last year, January kicked off this year with a bang. 

Many major crypto firms have filled C-suite positions across the industry. The New York State Department of Financial Services has filled a desired virtual currency position. Plus, FTX poached a key investor. 

At the same time, a number of companies have brought on key players to their boards, with tennis player Serena Williams among them.

Hires

• The New York State Department of Financial Services has finally filled the role of deputy superintendent of virtual currency. It goes to Peter Marton, former director of digital assets at Promontory Financial Group, owned by IBM.
• Amy Wu has joined FTX to lead its new $2 billion venture fund. She was formerly a partner at Lightspeed ventures. According to her LinkedIn profile, she has been working for the exchange as an investor for eight months now, with her new title head of ventures and commercial.
• MEV-focused collective Flashbots has brought on Hasu, a pseudonymous crypto researcher, to lead strategy. Hasu is also a research collaborator at Paradigm and an angel investor.
• Bittrex has brought on Paul Grier as CMO. He was formerly the director of internal communications, content and channels at the London Stock Exchange. He was once the head of communications for CME Group.
• Bitcoin Suisse has hired Dirk Klee as CEO. He joins from Barclays UK where he was CEO of wealth management and investments.
• Marcus Hughes has joined derivatives exchange BitMEX as chief risk officer. His last position was general counsel for Coinbase, and before that he spent nearly a decade at Morgan Stanley.
• BitMEX Link has brought on Ivo Sauter as CEO. BitMEX Link is an upcoming crypto brokerage service set to launch in the second quarter of this year to supplement the exchange’s existing derivatives offering.
• Crypto.com has brought on Jeff Zeller as senior director of NFT partnerships and business operations. He is very experienced in entertainment marketing and has worked for Sony, ESPN and Apple.
• BlockFi has hired Alex Grigoryan as CTO and Deb Barta as COO. Grigoryan previously worked for five years at Walmart and then five more at PayPal. Barta spent the last 14 years at Mastercard, where she launched Mastercard’s first commercial blockchain product.
• Digital asset-focused ETP provider Valour has hired Tommy Fransson as CEO. His last post was deputy CEO of regulated exchange Nordic Growth Market, where he worked for 14 years.
• Compound Labs has hired Reid Cuming as VP and general manager of Compound Treasury. Cuming was formerly the head of product at Chime and he previously worked at Stripe and Square.
• Crypto.com has brought on former journalist ​​Jon Russell as a partner at its $200 million web3 fund. Russell has worked for a range of news sites, including TechCrunch and The Next Web.
• Solana-based Solrise Finance has picked up Joseph Edwards as head of financial strategy. He joins from Engima Securities, where he was head of research.
• Katryna Hanush is now the director of biz dev and partnerships at crypto market-making firm Wintermute. She comes from State Street, where she worked for five years, having previously worked at Credit Suisse.
• BitPay has brought on Jim Lester as COO. He is formerly the CEO of ThingTech, a company focused on the “internet of things.”
• UK trade association CryptoUK now counts Teana Baker-Taylor as a non-executive director. Baker-Taylor has worked for a range of crypto firms over the last few years, including Coinfloor, Global Digital Finance, Binance and Crypto.com. 
• Google has hired Arnold Goldberg to run its payments division. This is part of a push to provide more financial services, including crypto, according to Bloomberg. Goldberg spent eight years at PayPal covering product and technology.
• Crypto lending firm Celsius Network has hired Aslihan Denizkurdu as COO and Frank van Etten as CIO. Denizkurdu spent 10 years at Citi, finishing his stint there as COO and head of risk governance. Van Etten is a former portfolio manager at UBS.
• Anchorage Digital has picked up Rachel Anderika as chief risk officer. Earlier in her career, she spent nine years as national bank examiner at the Office for the Comptroller of the Currency.
• Komainu has hired Matthew Chamberlain as chief executive. He has spent the last nine years as CEO of the London Metal Exchange and is a former director at UBS.
• Circle has brought on Sherice Torres as CMO. She was once the CMO of Novi (the wallet behind the stablecoin Diem that has recently been shut down) and spent six years at Google. 
• Polygon Studio — part of the company behind the crypto Polygon — has brought on Ryan Wyatt as CEO. He has spent the last seven years as senior director and global head of gaming at YouTube. 
• Nate Roth has joined Jump Crypto as CMO. He joins from dating app Hinge where he had the same role and was previously at car service Gett.

Exits

• Ryan Watkins has left Messari, where he was a senior research analyst. He is now setting up a new business but details remain scant.
• Moxie Marlinspike has resigned as CEO of privacy-focused messaging app Signal, which has integrated the MobileCoin cryptocurrency. Marlinspike was a technical advisor to the project in its early days.
• SEC Commissioner Elad Roisman has stepped down two years ahead of schedule. This follows his earlier announcement that he intended to do so.

Advisory and board positions

• DoorDash CEO Tony Xu has joined Meta’s board of directors.
• Advisor and speaker Anita Sands has joined Circle’s board of directors. She now sits on the board of directors for 10 companies.
• Tom Horton has joined Blockchain.com’s board of directors. He is also lead independent director for both Walmart and General Electric.
• Former CFTC chairman Christopher Giancarlo has joined the board of directors for blockchain software company Digital Asset. 
• Tennis player Serena Williams has joined fantasy football platform Sorare as an advisor to its board of directors.