Genesis named Chief Operating Officer Derar Islim interim chief executive officer on August 17, 2022. The digital asset prime brokerage announced the move in a press release that also said Michael Moro was stepping down as CEO1. Islim had joined Genesis in 2020 as COO. He had "overseen the development of strategy and key core functions," the release said. Crowdfund Insider reported on August 17, 2022, that Islim took the role "while the company seeks a replacement for Moro"2.
18 CEO appointments on the record in 2022
CEO appointments CryptoLately has verified, by year; 2026 through Oct. 2, 2026
- 2022: 18
- 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026
Moves: The Moves Ledger, CryptoLately's record of verified leadership moves, Oct. 3, 2016 to Oct. 2, 2026.
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 8 |
| 2020 | 7 |
| 2021 | 6 |
| 2022 | 18 |
| 2023 | 17 |
| 2024 | 26 |
| 2025 | 35 |
| 2026 | 18 |
Trading Venues & Brokerage led CEO appointments in 2022, with three
CEO appointments CryptoLately has verified in 2022, by the sector of the company
Moves: The Moves Ledger, CryptoLately's record of verified leadership moves, Oct. 3, 2016 to Oct. 2, 2026.
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Trading Venues & Brokerage | 3 |
| Layer 1s & Infrastructure | 2 |
| Bitcoin & Mining | 2 |
| Capital Markets & Treasury | 2 |
| Institutional Custody & Asset Management | 2 |
| Regulation & Enforcement | 1 |
The move
Moro framed his own exit around the firm's decade of growth rather than its troubles. “Since we launched the first OTC bitcoin trading desk in 2013, sophisticated investors have come to Genesis to provide liquidity, lending, and custody services for their digital assets,” Moro said in the release. “It has been an honor to lead Genesis for nearly a decade and I look forward to supporting the company's next phase of growth.”1 Genesis said Moro would stay on to advise the company through the transition.
Mark Murphy, chief operating officer of parent company Digital Currency Group, named the reasoning behind the promotion directly. “We're pleased to elevate Derar to the interim CEO role - he has our full trust and confidence and has been instrumental in developing key areas of the Genesis business,” Murphy said1. The release paired Islim's appointment with three other hires announced that same day: a chief risk officer, a chief compliance officer and a chief technology officer. Genesis said the moves would "bolster leadership" and strengthen the firm's "overall risk management".
Genesis before and after
Moro had run Genesis since 2013, when the firm launched what the release called the first over-the-counter bitcoin trading desk1. Genesis is a wholly owned subsidiary of Digital Currency Group. Crowdfund Insider reported that the company had posted a "mixed bag" of second-quarter results. OTC trading volume topped $17.2 billion, up more than 51 percent from the prior quarter2. The same report said Genesis had exposure to the collapse of Three Arrows Capital. Digital Currency Group absorbed those losses onto its own balance sheet, the report said. Tom Conheeney, a former president of SAC Capital and Point72 Asset Management, joined on August 17, 2022, too, as senior advisor and board member, to support Islim on strategy.
What came next
Genesis Global Capital, Genesis Global Holdco and Genesis Asia Pacific filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on January 19, 2023, five months after Islim's appointment, CoinDesk reported3. The filing landed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. CoinDesk said the November 2022 collapse of FTX had compounded losses from Three Arrows Capital's earlier failure. More than 100,000 creditors held claims against the firm. Liabilities ran between $1 billion and $10 billion. Layoffs had already cut 30 percent of the firm's staff that same month, CoinDesk reported, down to 145 employees.
Sources
- Genesis, "Genesis Announces New Leadership Team," Business Wire, August 17, 2022, https://web.archive.org/web/20230112095539/https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220816005936/en/Genesis-Announces-New-Leadership-Team
- JD Alois, "Digital Asset Prime Brokerage Genesis Announces Leadership Shake Up," Crowdfund Insider, August 17, 2022, https://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2022/08/194902-digital-asset-prime-brokerage-genesis-announces-leadership-shake-up/
- Stephen Alpher, Danny Nelson, "Genesis' Crypto Lending Businesses File for Bankruptcy Protection," CoinDesk, January 19, 2023, https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMilgFBVV95cUxOSGw4elA5Ti05YnBvcmdJZ2NxT25IZ0ZOc3d2dFhxNC1MQ0xxQndPRzZZT1hzOUpnSmRJU1ZVOTBXU2NUbnRlMHp0bnV4bmYxRHVER1Nld3hiN0J5eE9BOE91ckpFdkVVeDlXTnJlN2xnTWpwU1NPMFoxSTFycmhUaGtyWFp1QXlIV2hsc0NUMDhoYjh6VVE?oc=5