33 key crypto hires, exits and moves: January 2023 hiring roundup

Crypto prices posted significant gains in January, with bitcoin ending the month up by 38%. The total market capitalization regained the $1 trillion mark after sinking below that level in December.

January still saw several crypto companies announce job cuts, including exchange giant Coinbase. However, some crypto projects are looking to hire new team members having secured funding from major backers.

Investment management firm Brevan Howard appears to be going forward with its crypto push. The company hired Dragonfly’s head of liquid strategies Kevin Hu — along with his entire department. Ripple also promoted one of its longest-serving employees, Monica Long, to president of the company.

Hires

• Standard Chartered’s crypto venture arm Zodia Custody appointed Julian Sawyer as its new CEO. Swayer, who co-founded Starling Bank, has previous crypto experience with his time as CEO of the exchange platform Bitstamp.
• Nadine Chakar was named the new CEO of crypto infrastructure outfit Securrency. Chakar replaced Securrency founder Dan Doney as CEO. Chakar’s previous roles include head of global markets at State Street.
• Arjun Kalsy took up the role of Ecosystem Head at Mantle Network, an Ethereum Layer 2 network developed by BitDAO. Kalsy was previously Vice President of Growth at Polygon, an Ethereum scaling solution.
• Kraken appointed David Olsson to lead the company’s prime finance and OTC sales department. Olsson’s previous experience includes a stint as senior vice president at BlockFi, where he served as global head of institutional distribution between May 2020 and September 2022.
• Charles Adkins joined Layer 1 blockchain platform Aptos as its new global business development lead. Adkins previously served as vice president of NFTs at Polygon.
• Cardiff-based crypto asset protection company Coincover named Katharine Wooller as its new business unit director. Wooller was previously the managing director for UK and Europe at Dacxi, a crypto exchange platform.
• Joe Ranzenbach joined Doodles as the NFT project’s head of product. Ranzenbach previously served as vice president of product at Cardlytics between August 2020 and March 2022.
• Ioana Surpateanu was appointed a non-executive director at the lobby group CryptoUK. Surpateanu is a veteran of the European Parliament, serving as a senior adviser over the course of a decade. Apart from CryptoUK, Surpateanu also holds roles at Swash, Multichain Asset Managers Association and The Block Space, among others.
• NFT project Doodles appointed Austin Hurwitz to the role of business development head. Hurwitz is an Amazon veteran and previously helmed Venice Music’s web3 department.
• Ken Gibbs is the new editor-in-chief at Money20/20. Gibbs was previously head of series social at Amazon and spent five years working at BET Network.
• Khalid Dannish joined web3 platform Fasset as its new general manager. Dannish is a former vice president at JPMorgan and was previously the CEO of Bahrain Fintech Bay.
• Skolem Technologies named Henry Howell as its chief revenue officer. Before joining Skolem, Howell held roles at Goldman Sachs and Eisler Capital. Howell also previously helmed the business development office at Nickel Digital Asset Management.
• Liz Adnitt took up a senior role at Aaro Capital as the cryptoasset investment specialist’s new sales director. Adnitt will head the company’s efforts to maintain and expand its institutional client relationships. Adnitt previously spent seven years at Sanlam Investments, first as a sales director and then as the company’s head of wholesale distribution.
• Brevan Howard Digital hired Kevin Hu as its new portfolio manager. Hu joined Brevan Howard from crypto venture capital fund Dragonfly, where he was the head of liquid strategies.
• Former UK Chancellor Philipp Hammond was named the chairman of crypto technology firm Copper. Hammond served as UK Chancellor between 2016 and 2019 and plans to help Copper engineer a return to the country. Copper registered in Switzerland after withdrawing its licensing application with the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority. Hammond has previously criticized the UK’s crypto policies, saying they could pose a “huge risk” to the development of the country’s finance sector.
• Olivier Dang joined Laser Digital as a board member and the firm’s new head of ventures. Dang transitioned to the role from Nomura where he spent 12 years. Laser Digital is Nomura’s fully-owned crypto arm.
• Kraken hired C.J. Rinaldi as the company’s new chief compliance officer. Rinaldi previously helmed the compliance office at Blockchain.com and Deutsche Bank and was a senior counsel at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Enforcement Division.

Exits

• Oliver Blower stepped down from his role as the first independent non-executive director at Bitstamp after three years.
• James Gwertzman exited the role of general partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). Gwertzman helped launch a16z’s Games Fund One, a venture capital fund dedicated to investments in blockchain gaming projects.
• Joe Morgan has left the role of senior public relations manager at Bitfinex for a new role at the Ton Foundation as its director of public relations. Morgan was once a stocks reporter at Bloomberg News as well as a personal finance writer at The Times.
• Timothy Stranex, founder and chief technology officer at Luno, departed the company after more than a decade. Simon Ince, former vice president of engineering at Luno, has been occupying the role since Stranex’s departure.
• Jon Russell was laid off by Crypto.com Capital, the web3 fund operated by cryptocurrency exchange platform Crypto.com. Russell was previously the Southeast Asia editor at The Ken and a writer at TechCrunch.
• Shaun Heng stepped down as the head of Spartan Labs, a web3 venture studio created by Asian crypto investment company Spartan Group. Heng is a former vice president at CoinMarketCap.
• Chris Tyrer left his role as head of institutional at Fidelity Digital after four years at the firm. Tyrer is a veteran of the banking sector having spent over a decade at Barclays.
• Securrency Founder Dan Doney stepped down from his role as the CEO of the crypto infrastructure firm. Dan was previously both the CEO and CTO of the firm and will retain the latter position after handing over the reins to Nadine Chakar, formerly of State Street.

Promotions

• CoinDesk promoted Talie Schwager to chief people officer at the crypto media firm. Schwager has spent four years at CoinDesk and was previously the company’s head of operations, as well as vice president of people and human resources.
• Ripple promoted Monica Long to president. Long previously served as Ripple’s senior vice president and general manager.
• Matej Zak was promoted to CEO at hardware wallet maker Trezor. Zak was Trezor’s chief product officer for three years before assuming the lead role at the company.
• Yaro Pan moved to a new role at Boston-based Wellington Management as the company’s new lead crypto asset strategist. Pan will be looking to expand the asset manager’s crypto research capabilities and has been at the company for 17 years.
• Hive Blockchain transitioned Aydin Kilic to the role of president and CEO of the company. Kilic was previously president and COO of Hive and replaces the company’s executive chairman Frank Holmes as CEO.

Open roles and hiring ambitions

• Darewise Entertainment, a subsidiary of Animoca Brands, is looking to hire a head of degen relationships. The role is for its game called Life Beyond, a play-and-earn sci-fi civilization-building title. The person who takes up this role will be charged with being an ambassador for the game in the crypto space.
• Sec 3, a blockchain security firm, has stated plans to double its current headcount of 15 employees. This hiring plan comes after the firm secured $10 million in seed funding.
• Sovereign Labs is planning to hire more people to its team to develop zero-knowledge (ZK) rollup technology. This firm was recently backed by a group of investors led by Haun Ventures to the tune of $7.4 million. Sovereign Labs plans to use part of the funds to add more team members.