Injective Labs hired Sullivan & Cromwell associate Brandon Ferrick as its first general counsel. Bloomberg Law reported the hire in a story Injective reposted on its own blog on Sept. 3, 20211. Ferrick had spent three years at the New York firm before the move. There he advised financial institutions on regulatory and transactional matters. “My goal is to work with interest groups, lawmakers, and regulators to parse these important distinctions to ensure DeFi markets remain safe, efficient, and open to all,” Ferrick said. The Global Legal Post confirmed the hire on Sept. 7, 2021, calling Injective "the world's first cross-chain protocol built for decentralised finance applications"2.
27 executive hires on the record in 2021
Executive hires CryptoLately has verified, by year
- 2021: 27
- 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
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 |
|---|---|
| 2018 | 8 |
| 2019 | 11 |
| 2020 | 12 |
| 2021 | 27 |
| 2022 | 37 |
| 2023 | 20 |
| 2024 | 39 |
| 2025 | 59 |
Capital Markets & Treasury led executive hires in 2021, with four
Executive hires CryptoLately has verified in 2021, 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 |
|---|---|
| Capital Markets & Treasury | 4 |
| Wallets & Consumer Apps | 4 |
| Bitcoin & Mining | 3 |
| Trading Venues & Brokerage | 2 |
| Institutional Custody & Asset Management | 1 |
| Layer 1s & Infrastructure | 1 |
| DeFi Protocols | 1 |
The move
Ferrick told Bloomberg Law he had tracked the technology for years before he took the job. He said in an email that digital assets and distributed ledger technology had captivated him since 20131. Joining Injective let him “dive into the space and drive the discourse from the front lines,” he said. Precision topped his list of problems. “The biggest challenge for the digital asset space is precision of language,” Ferrick said, adding that substantive laws can come only once lawmakers and regulators grasp "important nuances in this nascent and complicated environment". Bloomberg Law reported that Injective was working with Sullivan & Cromwell and Fenwick & West on its regulatory strategy as Ferrick joined.
Before and after
Ferrick's hire gave Injective its first named legal chief. Bloomberg Law's report named a second hire alongside it. Maxim Shen, a former trader at Blue Fire Capital, joined Injective as head of financial markets alongside Ferrick, Bloomberg Law reported1. The Global Legal Post placed the hire against Injective's backing. Binance's investment arm, part of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, had already backed the protocol by the time Ferrick signed on2. At Sullivan & Cromwell, Ferrick had worked on NFT and token matters for crypto clients. Bloomberg Law named three: Coinbase Global, Gemini Trust, and Galaxy Digital Ventures.
What the record shows
Injective's repost of the Bloomberg Law story and The Global Legal Post's report, dated Sept. 3 and Sept. 7, 2021, carry Ferrick's hire and his first public words about the role12. A Google News search on October 3, 2026, looked for a later page on Ferrick's tenure at Injective. Its results held The Global Legal Post's September 2021 report and an October 2021 Bloomberg Law headline about a Fireblocks hire, a paywalled page this brief leaves aside.
Sources
- "Bloomberg Law: Mark Cuban-Backed Crypto Startup Injective Hires Legal Chief," Injective Labs, Sept. 3, 2021, https://injective.com/blog/bloomberg-law-mark-cuban-backed-crypto-startup-injective-hires-legal-chief/
- Madeline Anderson, "Sullivan & Cromwell lawyer named Injective Labs' first general counsel," The Global Legal Post, Sept. 7, 2021, https://www.globallegalpost.com/news/sullivan-cromwell-lawyer-named-injective-labs-first-general-counsel-893188683