Here are the 12 biggest crypto hires thus far in 2021

The crypto industry has undergone an epic hiring spree since the beginning of the year. 

The most notable change is an apparent acceleration in the exodus from Wall Street to the crypto space for employees across traditional finance and tech. Lucrative offers for top-level positions at an increasing number of emergent firms at the intersection of these two worlds have also played a role in this growing trend.

Here’s a breakdown of 12 of the biggest hires in the first half of 2021.

Damien Vanderwilt: Co-president and head of global markets, Galaxy Digital

Damien Vanderwilt spent 20 years at investment bank Goldman Sachs, working his way up from an associate to partner in the global markets business. During this time he lived and worked in Sydney, Hong Kong, London and New York.

After leaving the firm in November 2020, he joined crypto investment firm Galaxy Digital — spearheaded by billionaire Mike Novogratz — in January 2021. Vanderwilt, who will serve as co-president and head of global markets, has said his goal is to help “institutionalize the digital asset and blockchain technology sector.”

Melissa Strait: Chief compliance officer, Coinbase

Melissa Strait was a compliance manager at payments company Square for three years before joining its competitor Stripe as a compliance officer. She worked for Stripe for four years, eventually becoming global head of financial crimes.

In February, Strait joined crypto exchange Coinbase as chief compliance officer to focus on the exchange’s know-your-customer and anti-money-laundering procedures. In an announcement post, Coinbase chief legal officer Paul Grewal said of Strait: “As we continue to move forward with the mainstream adoption of crypto, her experience will be vital in ensuring our innovative technology is aligned with global compliance standards.”

Brian Brooks: CEO, Binance.US

It was one of the most shocking exits the crypto world has ever seen. 

At the start of May, Catherine Coley, the well-followed and enthusiastic CEO of Binance.US, was ousted from her perch. She was replaced with former regulator and Coinbase exec Brian Brooks. It's not clear what Coley's next move is. Brooks, meanwhile, has his sights set on making Binance.US the largest exchange in America.

Brooks, who previously served as chief legal officer to Coinbase, most recently spent nearly a year at the office of the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency. For the majority of his time there, he served as acting comptroller of the currency. He was initially tapped to take the role full time but that offer was swiftly withdrawn when Joe Biden became president.

Coley’s ousting and subsequent silence on social media has led to question marks over what she’s doing now and where she plans to go. 

Brett Harrison: President, FTX.US

Brett Harrison started his career with a seven-year stint at quant firm Jane Street — where he worked alongside now-FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried — and then a stint at quant firm Headlands Technologies. 

In 2019, he joined market making firm Citadel Securities as head of ETF technology. After nearly two years there, Harrison joined crypto exchange FTX as president of FTX.US (its U.S. outpost) in May.

"When we were at Jane Street, Brett was always the best developer to call when you absolutely had to get something online. He combined great technical skills (way better than mine!) with a clear view of the business needs and priorities,” Bankman-Fried said of the new hire.

Recently, FTX closed a $900 million funding round with a valuation of $18 billion.

Faryar Shirzad: Chief policy officer, Coinbase

Faryar Shirzad spent nine years in Washington, DC, working for the U.S. government, eventually becoming the deputy national security advisor for international economic affairs at the White House. But in 2006, he switched to the private sector and worked as Goldman Sachs’ global co-head of government affairs for 14 years.

Then, in June 2021, Shirzad joined Coinbase as its chief policy officer. His goal will be to navigate the regulatory environment and work specifically with regulators on Coinbase’s behalf.

Allison Gott: Vice president of business development, Paxos

For eight and a half years, Allison Gott was the senior vice president at Citadel Securities, one of the largest market-making firms in the US stock market. 

In June, she joined blockchain infrastructure platform Paxos as vice president of business development. Paxos has been making big moves in both the crypto and stock market. It recently expanded a pilot that would allow big financial institutions to settle trades on the blockchain. It has also partnered with Mastercard on its own stablecoin project.

Gott previously worked at the Royal Bank of Scotland. Gott’s hire has not been previously reported.

Mary-Catherine Lader: Chief operating officer, Uniswap Labs

Unlike many of the other big hires this year, Mary-Catherine Lader had some crypto experience before fully entering the space. For nearly six years, she worked at asset management firm BlackRock, and she spent two of those years in a role where she “oversaw crypto and blockchain activity and strategy.”

As The Block first reported, Lader left BlackRock earlier this summer and in June she joined Uniswap Labs, the team behind the decentralized exchange Uniswap, as its chief operating officer. Her role is to “lead growth, strategy and operations.”

Jim Prosser: Head of communications, Paradigm 

Jim Prosser has taken a varied career path, working in communications for tech giants Google and Twitter as well as with personal finance company SoFi. In January 2020, he joined consultancy firm Edelman as managing director for corporate affairs and advisory services. 

Then in June this year he joined crypto investment firm Paradigm as its head of communications. At the time he explained the move in a tweet:  “Crypto is the next defining technology of our times, and we've only just begun to understand and explore its utility.”

Roger Younan: Crypto CFO, Robinhood

Launched in 2018, Robinhood Crypto is one of the fastest growing segments of brokerage firm Robinhood’s business. According to recent regulatory filings, crypto accounts for about 17% of the popular stock trading platform’s revenues. 

The firm appears to be making its crypto business even bigger. Recently it appointed Christine Brown as its chief operating officer and noted in an April blog post that Robinhood’s “crypto team has already more than tripled this year.”

One unreported hire by the firm is the new CFO for the crypto biz: Roger Younan, who joined Robinhood from Amazon. Previously, Younan was a senior manager for the Seattle-based firm, managing a team within its advertising division. He was with Amazon for 6 years, according to his LinkedIn profile. 

Rachael Horwitz: VP of communications, a16z

Rachael Horwitz is a veteran communicator in Silicon Valley. She also joined a16z crypto in June as an operating partner charged with leading marketing and communications. Horwitz previously held marketing and communication roles at Twitter, Google, Facebook, and Coinbase. 

As Coinbase's first VP of communications, she managed the exchange's brand during a period of rapid growth for the firm.

Sendi Young: European managing director, Ripple

With a background in consulting and banking, Sendi Young joined payments firm Mastercard in 2016 and spent five and a half years there. During her Mastercard tenure she fell into the fintech side of things, becoming the company’s digital and fintech segment global lead, a role she had for just six months.

This ended in June 2021, when she joined blockchain payments company Ripple as its managing director of Europe. 

Kinga Bosse: CFO, Lukka

Kinga Bosse has worked for accounting firm PwC, investment bank Houlihan Lokey and insurance firm AIG. In 2018, she joined investment manager State Street as global head of strategic investments and partnerships.

After three years at State Street, she elected to join Lukka in June as its chief financial officer. When joining, she explained her move by pointing to “the future exponential growth that I believe the company and ecosystem will experience.”