Moves of 2019
Markets & VenuesCEO Changes
Bakkt Names Mike Blandina Chief Executive Officer
Intercontinental Exchange named Mike Blandina chief executive officer of Bakkt on December 23, 2019, promoting him from chief product officer after founding CEO Kelly Loeffler left for the U.S. Senate.
Markets & VenuesCEO Changes
Kelly Loeffler Departs as Bakkt Chief Executive
Intercontinental Exchange said on December 23, 2019, that founding CEO Kelly Loeffler had left Bakkt for the U.S. Senate seat of retiring Sen. Johnny Isakson, and named Mike Blandina to succeed her.
Payments & ConsumerExecutive Hires
Ledger Names Charles Guillemet Chief Technology Officer
Ledger appointed Charles Guillemet chief technology officer on December 5, 2019, keeping the security researcher who founded its Donjon lab in charge of its hardware wallet technology.
Markets & VenuesCEO Changes
Franklin Resources Names Jennifer Johnson CEO
Franklin Resources named 31-year company veteran Jennifer M. Johnson president and chief executive officer on November 21, 2019, moving Gregory Johnson to executive chairman.
Markets & VenuesCEO Changes
Gregory Johnson Steps Down as Franklin Templeton CEO
Franklin Resources named Jennifer Johnson president and CEO on Nov. 21, 2019, moving Gregory Johnson to executive chairman while he kept the board chairman title.
ProtocolsExits and Removals
ConsenSys Strategy Chief Sam Cassatt Steps Down to Launch Fund
Sam Cassatt left his post as ConsenSys chief strategy officer on Nov. 15, 2019 to start Aligned Capital, a venture fund backed by ConsenSys founder Joe Lubin that aimed to raise $50 million.
Markets & VenuesCEO Changes
CleanSpark Names Zach Bradford Chief Executive Officer
CleanSpark's move of Zach Bradford from president and chief financial officer into the chief executive seat became public on October 9, 2019, in a summary of its filing, as founder Matthew Schultz stepped back to chairman of the board.
Markets & VenuesCEO Changes
Matthew Schultz Steps Down as CleanSpark Chief Executive
CleanSpark co-founder Matthew Schultz's move from chief executive to chairman of the board became public on October 9, 2019, handing the CEO title to president and finance chief Zach Bradford.
Payments & ConsumerWallets & Consumer Apps
Mike Peterson Pays El Zonte in Bitcoin and Tags Bukele
Bitcoin Beach paid El Zonte's river cleaners in bitcoin in September 2019, and El Salvador passed its Bitcoin Law in June 2021.
Markets & VenuesExecutive Hires
Gemini Names Noah Perlman Chief Compliance Officer
Tyler Winklevoss announced on September 4, 2019, that Noah Perlman had joined Gemini as chief compliance officer, a hire Compliance Week independently reported the next day.
Markets & VenuesExecutive Hires
Gemini Names David Damato Chief Security Officer
Gemini hired David Damato, formerly chief security officer at Tanium, to lead its security program on August 19, 2019, during what the exchange called a period of rapid growth.
ProtocolsBoard Seats
IOTA Co-Founder Sergey Ivancheglo Resigns From the Board
Sergey Ivancheglo submitted his resignation from the IOTA Foundation board on June 26, 2019, a move co-founder David Sønstebø made public on July 26, 2019, after Ivancheglo said he worked best in a less rigid setting.
ProtocolsDeFi Protocols
Kain Warwick's Synthetix Plants Yield Farming Eleven Months Before COMP
Synthetix paid SNX to Uniswap liquidity providers from July 2019, eleven months before Compound's COMP set off DeFi's yield farming summer.
Markets & VenuesBitcoin & Mining
Michel Rauchs Helps Count Bitcoin's Watts, and Cambridge Recounts Them
Michel Rauchs co-designed Cambridge's Bitcoin electricity index, launched July 2, 2019, and a 2023 revision cut its 2021 estimate from 104.9 to 89.0 terawatt-hours.
Markets & VenuesExecutive Hires
Robinhood Elevates Gretchen Howard to Chief Operating Officer
Robinhood promoted Gretchen Howard, a five-month vice president of operations, to chief operating officer on June 24, 2019, 13 months after the company raised $363 million at a $5.6 billion valuation.
Payments & ConsumerExits and Removals
PayPal COO Bill Ready to Leave at Year's End
PayPal announced on June 20, 2019, that Chief Operating Officer Bill Ready would transition out of the company by the end of the year, closing a six-year run that began with PayPal's 800 million dollar purchase of his startup Braintree.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
Roman Schnider Replaces Eelco Fiole as Tezos Foundation CFO
The Tezos Foundation named its own outside auditor, Roman Schnider, as chief financial officer on June 11, 2019, five months after Eelco Fiole took the same job.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Amrit Kumar Takes Over Zilliqa From Xinshu Dong
Zilliqa's chief scientist became President on May 6, 2019, the day co-founder and CEO Xinshu Dong gave up daily operations.
Payments & ConsumerBoard Seats
Ripple Names SBI's Yoshitaka Kitao to Its Board
Ripple announced on April 26, 2019, that Yoshitaka Kitao, chief executive of its Japanese partner SBI Holdings, would join its board of directors, replacing SBI Ripple Asia's own chief executive in the seat.
Payments & ConsumerCEO Changes
Ledger Names President Pascal Gauthier Chief Executive
Ledger named its president, Pascal Gauthier, chief executive officer on April 24, 2019, as founder Eric Larchevêque moved to the role of executive chairman.
ProtocolsProtocol Research
Phil Daian Names MEV, and Flashbots Builds Its Market
A 2019 Cornell Tech paper named the profit in ordering trades; by October 2026, 92 percent of Ethereum slots ran through Flashbots' MEV-Boost.
ProtocolsBoard Seats
Quant Network Adds Guy Dietrich to Its Board
Quant Network named Rockefeller Capital managing director Guy Dietrich to its board on April 10, 2019, the day it said it would expand into the US market.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
AG Gangadhar Steps Down as Digital Asset's Acting CEO
Digital Asset's board voted on March 19, 2019, to name co-founder Yuval Rooz chief executive, ending AG Gangadhar's three-month run as acting CEO and moving him into the role of executive chairman.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Digital Asset Promotes Co-Founder Yuval Rooz to CEO
Digital Asset's board unanimously voted to name co-founder Yuval Rooz chief executive officer on March 19, 2019, three months after Blythe Masters resigned, promoting its chief operating officer into the permanent role.
Markets & VenuesExits and Removals
Franklin Resources CFO Ken Lewis to Retire
Franklin Resources told the SEC on March 18, 2019, that Chief Financial Officer Ken Lewis would retire May 6 after 30 years at the firm, handing the job to incoming hire Matthew Nicholls.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Jed McCaleb Steps Down as Stellar Executive Director
The Stellar Development Foundation named Denelle Dixon its executive director and CEO on March 14, 2019, moving co-founder Jed McCaleb into a chief architect role focused on protocol growth.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Jimmy Nguyen Steps Down as nChain Chief Executive
Jimmy Nguyen left the chief executive job at nChain on March 7, 2019, as the company named David Washburn his successor and moved Nguyen to chair its Strategic Advisory Board.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
nChain Names David Washburn Chief Executive Officer
nChain named David Washburn chief executive officer of its London-based nChain Limited on March 7, 2019, succeeding Jimmy Nguyen, who moved to chair the company's advisory board.
ProtocolsLayer 1s & Infrastructure
Eric Conner Sparks Ethereum's Fee Burn, and Miners Fume
Eric Conner championed Vitalik Buterin's fee-burn plan in 2019; Ethereum has burned 4.6 million ETH since August 2021, though the burn shrank in 2025.
Rules & RiskRegulation & Enforcement
Caitlin Long's Crypto Bank Law Meets the Fed's Third Tier
Wyoming created crypto banks on Feb. 26, 2019; the Fed rejected Caitlin Long's Custodia in 2023 and approved Kraken's bank only in 2026.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
Hedera Hashgraph Names Lionel Chocron Product Chief
Hedera Hashgraph named Lionel Chocron chief product officer on Feb. 6, 2019, hiring him from Oracle alongside two other senior product and partnership executives.
ProtocolsProtocol Research
Kevin Owocki Squares the Crowd at Gitcoin
Gitcoin ran its first quadratic funding round in February 2019 with a $25,000 match; by 2022 matches topped $3 million, and fake accounts grew alongside.
