Top 50 Key Personnel Changes in the Crypto Industry in August
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Top 50 Key Personnel Changes in the Crypto Industry in August
Recruitment activity picked up again in August, with a wave of senior-level personnel changes at exchanges, custodians, and infrastructure companies.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsBy: Tim Copeland, Head of Growth at The Block
Translation: Yuliya, PANews
Hiring activity picked up again in August, with significant leadership changes across exchanges, custodians, and infrastructure firms. Notably, Coinbase, Grayscale, and CoinGecko made prominent moves, restructuring their leadership to clarify and strengthen their market positioning ahead of the next market cycle. Additionally, following a leadership reshuffle, CleanSpark's co-founder returned to the CEO role.
Appointments of advisors were also notable, as high-profile figures such as Arthur Hayes and Peter Smith took on new roles. Stablecoin projects and venture capital firms particularly rely on strategic hires and board expansions to bolster credibility and expand influence.
There were also several noteworthy departures—from Solana Foundation’s head of PR to the IRS’s head of cryptocurrency operations—highlighting that turnover remains high at the intersection of crypto and regulation. Overall, the personnel shifts in August indicate that despite ongoing market sluggishness, companies are prioritizing talent in policy, compliance, and capital markets.
Hiring
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Circle, issuer of USDC, hired Adi Seredinschi as Chief Product Manager. He previously served as Director of Product at Informal Systems. The company also appointed Nicholas Walsh as Vice President of Brand & Creative, who formerly held the role of Senior Vice President of Brand, Creative, and AI Operations at Laetro.
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Australian crypto tax service provider Crypto Tax Calculator hired Josh Scheffey as Senior Director of Strategic Clients for the Americas. He was previously Head of Sales and Business Development for Web3 and Gaming at Arculus.
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Crypto VC CyberFund appointed Chrissy Hill as Chief Legal Officer. She previously held the same role at Parity Technologies.
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Blockchain lending firm Figure appointed Reid Simon as Head of Inclusive Prime Brokerage. He was previously Head of DeFi and Credit Solutions at Securitize.
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Prediction market Kalshi hired John Wang as Head of Crypto. He previously co-founded and served as CEO of Armor Labs.
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Bitcoin payments company Lightspark appointed Alberto Martin as Chief Product Officer. His most recent role was Director of Product Management for Web3 at Google.
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Mysten Labs, the team behind the Sui blockchain, appointed Mustafa Al Niama as Managing Director and Head of Capital Markets. He joins from Goldman Sachs, where he was previously Head of Digital Assets for the Americas.
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Offchain Labs, developer of Arbitrum, appointed Sean Soper as Head of Finance. He was previously Head of Finance at the Sei Foundation.
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Crypto exchange OKX appointed Marcus Hughes as Vice President of Global Government Relations. He previously served as Vice President of Global Regulatory Strategy at Kraken.
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Solana ecosystem wallet Phantom hired Donnie Dinch as Vice President of Strategy. He was previously CEO of Bitski.
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Bitcoin asset management firm ProCap hired Jeffrey Park as Partner and Chief Investment Officer. He was previously Head of Alpha Strategies at Bitwise Asset Management.
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Crypto consulting firm Renaud Partners appointed Gregor Frick as Partner. He previously worked at crypto VC Moonrock Capital.
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Crypto lending platform Nexo appointed Lorenzo Pellegrino as Chief Banking Officer. He previously served as CEO of Skrill, NETELLER, and Income Access at payment platform Paysafe.
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Digital asset securities firm Securitize appointed Graham Ferguson as Head of Ecosystem. He was previously Head of Growth and Marketing at Omni Network, an Ethereum interoperability protocol.
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RWA project Centrifuge hired Jürgen Blumberg, former EMEA Chief Operating Officer at Goldman Sachs ETF Accelerator, as Chief Operating Officer. He will also serve as Chief Information Officer at Anemoy, Centrifuge’s on-chain native asset management subsidiary.
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Grayscale Investments expanded its executive team with Diana Zhang (Chief Operating Officer), Ramona Boston (Chief Marketing Officer), Andrea Williams (Chief Communications Officer), and Maxwell Rosenthal (Chief People Officer).
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Bitcoin reserve firm Murano appointed Eric Weiss to its board and named him Chair of its Bitcoin Strategic Initiatives Committee.
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Regulated digital asset custodian Komainu hired Jamal Qaimmaqami as General Counsel for the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia-Pacific.
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Bitcoin-reserve-backed charitable tech platform EverGive appointed co-founder Muhammed Yesilhark as President.
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Nasdaq-listed crypto miner CleanSpark reappointed Matt Schultz as CEO after Zachary Bradford stepped down.
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Crypto VC Foresight Ventures added Alice Li and Zac Tsui as Partners.
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Crypto data platform CoinGecko made several leadership changes: Co-founder Bobby Ong succeeded fellow co-founder TM Lee as CEO, while TM Lee transitioned to President. Cedric Chan was appointed Chief Technology Officer, and Xingyi Ho moved from Head of Growth to Head of Product.
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The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) appointed Judge Margaret "Meg" Ryan as Director of Enforcement.
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50T, the newly merged brand formed by Dan Tapiero’s 10T Holdings and 1RoundTable Partners, welcomed Michael Scott as Partner.
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Industry group Stablecoin Standard appointed Oliver Madden as Head of Membership and Education and added Elliot Hentov from State Street IM to its board.
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Crypto OTC settlement platform BridgePort hired Steven Bartfield, former senior executive at Goldman Sachs and CME, as Chief Product Officer.
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Crypto-friendly bank Xapo Bank hired Tommy Doyle as Head of Client Relationship Management. He previously worked at crypto prime broker FalconX.
Promotions & Advisor Appointments
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Decentralized trading infrastructure 0x promoted Rui Zhang from Deputy General Counsel to General Counsel.
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Crypto exchange Coinbase promoted Shan Aggarwal, previously Vice President of Corporate and Business Development, to Chief Commercial Officer.
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Nasdaq-listed TON treasury firm Verb Technology made a series of appointments for its DAT initiative focused on the TON chain: Manuel Stotz as Executive Chairman, Veronika Kapustina as CEO, Sarah Olsen as CFO/COO, and Peter Smith (Blockchain.com) as advisor.
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Tether, issuer of USDT, appointed Bo Hines, former Executive Director of the White House Crypto Council, as Strategic Advisor for Digital Assets and U.S. Strategy.
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Bitcoin reserve firm Upexi launched an advisory board and named Arthur Hayes as its first member.
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Barry Silbert, founder of Grayscale Investments, succeeded Mark Shifke as Chairman. Mark Shifke remains on the board.
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TM Lee, co-founder of crypto data platform CoinGecko, transitioned from CEO to President.
Departures
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Jason Zhao, co-founder of on-chain IP ecosystem Story, resigned to launch a new AI venture.
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Arielle Pennington, Head of PR at Solana Foundation, departed.
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Zachary Bradford, CEO of Nasdaq-listed crypto miner CleanSpark, stepped down from executive and board roles.
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Trish Turner, Head of Crypto at the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS), left the agency to join Crypto Tax Girl as Tax Director.
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