Moves of 2022
Markets & VenuesCEO Changes
Bitfarms Co-Founder Emiliano Grodzki Resigns as CEO
Emiliano Grodzki resigned as Bitfarms' chief executive effective immediately on December 29, 2022, staying on as a director while the board promoted COO Geoffrey Morphy in his place.
Markets & VenuesCEO Changes
Bitfarms Promotes Geoffrey Morphy to Chief Executive
Bitfarms elevated President and COO Geoffrey Morphy to president and CEO on December 29, 2022, replacing co-founder Emiliano Grodzki after more than two years building out the company's operations.
Payments & ConsumerCEO Changes
Nicole Muniz Steps Down as Yuga Labs CEO
Nicole Muniz told her followers on December 19, 2022, that Daniel Alegre, then president and chief operating officer of the $60 billion gaming company Activision Blizzard, would succeed her as Yuga Labs' chief executive.
Markets & VenuesLayoffs
Kraken Cuts 1,100 Jobs as Crypto Winter Deepens
Kraken cut about 1,100 jobs, or 30 percent of its workforce, on Nov. 30, 2022, after the collapse of FTX, with CEO Jesse Powell citing slower trading volumes and fewer new clients.
Markets & VenuesCEO Changes
Prime Trust's Tom Pageler Is Out as CEO
Prime Trust replaced chief executive Tom Pageler on November 29, 2022, naming board member Jor Law interim CEO the same day, seven months before a Nevada court petition said the custodian held $82.8 million less in fiat than it owed clients.
Markets & VenuesCEO Changes
Prime Trust Names Jor Law Interim CEO
Prime Trust's board named longtime director Jor Law interim chief executive on November 29, 2022, the same day it replaced Tom Pageler, and Nevada petitioned to put the custodian into receivership seven months later.
Markets & VenuesCEO Changes
B2C2 Appoints Nicola White Group CEO
B2C2 named Nicola White Group CEO on November 11, 2022, and CoinDesk reported the same day that she replaced Phillip Gillespie, who moved to a venture capital role at SBI.
Markets & VenuesCEO Changes
John J. Ray III Replaces Sam Bankman-Fried at FTX
John J. Ray III became FTX's chief executive at about 4:30 a.m. EST on Nov. 11, 2022 and filed for Chapter 11 that day.
Payments & ConsumerLayoffs
Stripe Cuts 14 Percent of Its Workforce
Stripe laid off around 14 percent of its roughly 8,000 employees on Nov. 3, 2022, with CEO Patrick Collison telling staff the company had 'overhired for the world we're in.'
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Björn Wagner Succeeds Gavin Wood as Parity Technologies CEO
Wagner became Parity's CEO on Oct. 21, 2022, the day Gavin Wood gave up the title.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Matt Dyer Succeeds Ben Livshits as Zilliqa Research's Interim CEO
Zilliqa Research's chief of staff became interim CEO on Oct. 19, 2022.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
Sushi DAO Elects Jared Grey as Head Chef
Sushi's governance token holders elected Jared Grey as Head Chef on Oct. 3, 2022, with 83 percent of 13 million votes cast, filling a role that had sat open for a year after 0xMaki's departure.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Jared Grey Serves 1,155 Days as Sushi's Head Chef
Sushi's token holders elected Jared Grey Head Chef on Oct. 3, 2022, and he led until Dec. 1, 2025.
Markets & VenuesCEO Changes
Chris Ferraro Replaces Alex Mashinsky at Celsius Network
Celsius Network's founder resigned as CEO on Sept. 27, 2022.
Markets & VenuesCEO Changes
Komainu Names Nicolas Bertrand Chief Executive
Komainu, the Nomura-backed digital asset custodian, put Nicolas Bertrand in the CEO seat on September 26, 2022, pulling in a former Borsa Italiana derivatives chief to steer the firm through a falling market.
Markets & VenuesExits and Removals
Voyager Digital CFO Ashwin Prithipaul Resigns
Voyager Digital said on September 23, 2022, that Chief Financial Officer Ashwin Prithipaul was resigning after four months in the job, with CEO Stephen Ehrlich taking over his duties during the firm's bankruptcy.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
Algorand Names Michele Quintaglie Chief Marketing Officer
Algorand named Michele Quintaglie chief marketing officer on Sept. 21, 2022, effective Sept. 19, hiring a former Visa and Fidelity Asset Management communications chief to lead its brand.
Markets & VenuesCEO Changes
Jesse Powell Steps Down as Kraken Chief Executive
Kraken co-founder Jesse Powell announced on September 21, 2022, that chief operating officer Dave Ripley would succeed him as CEO after a yearlong search, with Powell becoming board chairman.
Markets & VenuesCEO Changes
Kraken Names Dave Ripley Chief Executive Officer
Kraken named chief operating officer Dave Ripley as its next chief executive officer on Sept. 21, 2022, as co-founder Jesse Powell moved to chairman after 11 years running the exchange.
ProtocolsLayer 1s & Infrastructure
Danny Ryan Steers the Merge That Unplugged Ethereum's Miners
Danny Ryan coordinated Ethereum's switch to proof of stake on Sept. 15, 2022; CCRI found it cut the network's electricity use by 99.988 percent.
Payments & ConsumerExecutive Hires
Paxos Names Carolina Ceballos Its First Chief Compliance Officer
Paxos announced on September 8, 2022, that it hired Carolina Ceballos, a 15-year compliance veteran from Facebook Payments, as the company's first dedicated chief compliance officer.
Markets & VenuesExecutive Hires
Copper Names Tim Neill Chief Risk Officer
Crypto custodian Copper hired Mastercard risk executive Tim Neill as chief risk officer on September 5, 2022, reporting to Chief Operating Officer Sabrina Wilson.
Markets & VenuesExits and Removals
Sam Trabucco Steps Down as Alameda Research Co-CEO
Sam Trabucco announced on X on Aug. 24, 2022 that he was stepping down as Alameda Research co-CEO, leaving Caroline Ellison as the firm's sole chief executive.
Markets & VenuesLayoffs
Hodlnaut Lays Off 40 Employees Amid Singapore Police Action
Hodlnaut cut 80 percent of its staff, about 40 employees, on August 19, 2022, as it sought judicial management in Singapore while police pursued separate proceedings against the lender.
Markets & VenuesCEO Changes
Genesis CEO Michael Moro Steps Down as Firm Cuts Staff
Michael Moro stepped down as Genesis chief executive officer on Aug. 17, 2022, the day the firm cut 20 percent of its workforce after losses tied to the collapse of Three Arrows Capital.
Markets & VenuesCEO Changes
Genesis Names Derar Islim Interim Chief Executive Officer
Genesis named Chief Operating Officer Derar Islim interim chief executive officer on August 17, 2022, the same day Michael Moro stepped down after leading the lender for nearly a decade.
Markets & VenuesExecutive Hires
Genesis Names Matthew Johnson Chief Technology Officer
Genesis named former Bakkt chief technology officer Matthew Johnson to the same role on August 17, 2022, alongside a new chief risk officer and chief compliance officer, the day CEO Michael Moro stepped down.
Payments & ConsumerExecutive Hires
Dapper Labs Names Former Meta Executive Nick Grudin Business Chief
Nick Grudin left Meta's content partnerships team to become Dapper Labs' chief business officer on August 11, 2022, then returned to his old Meta job seven months later.
Markets & VenuesExecutive Hires
Binance Names Co-Founder Yi He Head of Binance Labs
Binance put co-founder Yi He in charge of its $7.5 billion venture arm Binance Labs on August 3, 2022, a role chief executive Changpeng Zhao said matched her founding-team history with the unit.
Markets & VenuesExecutive Hires
BitGo Promotes Chen Fang to Chief Operating Officer
BitGo elevated Chen Fang from chief product officer to chief operating officer on August 2, 2022, the same day it named Victor Tsou, a 20-year engineering veteran from Affirm, vice president of engineering.
Markets & VenuesCEO Changes
Michael Saylor Moves From MicroStrategy CEO to Executive Chairman
MicroStrategy split its chairman and chief executive roles on Aug. 2, 2022, naming Michael Saylor executive chairman and promoting President Phong Le to chief executive.
Markets & VenuesCEO Changes
MicroStrategy Names Phong Le Chief Executive Officer
MicroStrategy split its chairman and CEO roles on Aug. 2, 2022, naming President Phong Le as chief executive while founder Michael Saylor became executive chairman, the same day the company disclosed a $917.8 million bitcoin impairment.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Sean Ford Replaces Steven Kokinos as Algorand Inc. Interim CEO
Algorand's chief operating officer became interim CEO on July 27, 2022, when Steven Kokinos left.
Rules & RiskExecutive Hires
Crypto Council for Innovation Names Linda Jeng General Counsel
The Crypto Council for Innovation named former Federal Reserve staffer Linda Jeng chief global regulatory officer and general counsel on July 26, 2022, as the advocacy group expanded its Washington policy team.
Payments & ConsumerExecutive Hires
Animoca Brands Names Alan Lau Chief Business Officer
Animoca Brands named Alan Lau, Tencent WeSure's former CEO, chief business officer on July 21, 2022, when it valued its portfolio at more than $1.5 billion across 340 investments.
Payments & ConsumerLayoffs
OpenSea Lays Off About 20 Percent of Its Staff
OpenSea CEO Devin Finzer told the company's staff on July 14, 2022, that the NFT marketplace was letting go of roughly 20 percent of its team to prepare for a prolonged crypto winter.
Markets & VenuesExecutive Hires
Amber Group Names Benjamin Bai Chief Legal Officer
Benjamin Bai left Ant Group's legal team to become Amber Group's chief legal officer on July 4, 2022, arriving as the digital asset platform secured a dozen regulatory licenses across five jurisdictions.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Peng Zhong Leaves Ignite as Layoffs Pass Half the Staff
Ignite's CEO announced his last day on July 1, 2022, the day CoinDesk reported cuts above 50 percent of the Cosmos builder's staff.
Payments & ConsumerExits and Removals
OpenSea Co-Founder Alex Atallah Steps Away From the Company
Alex Atallah told his team on July 1, 2022, that his last day at OpenSea would be July 30, after handing off every function he ran to new leaders since NFTs took off.
Markets & VenuesCEO Changes
Bittrex Global Names Oliver Linch Chief Executive
Bittrex Global's boards named general counsel Oliver Linch chief executive on June 27, 2022, the same day Stephen Stonberg stepped down after 13 months as chief executive.
Markets & VenuesCEO Changes
Bittrex Global's Stephen Stonberg Steps Down as CEO
Bittrex Global's boards announced on June 27, 2022, that Stephen Stonberg had stepped down as chief executive after 13 months in the job and three years in its leadership, with general counsel Oliver Linch named his successor the same day.
Markets & VenuesLayoffs
Bitpanda Lays Off Staff to Scale Down to 730 Employees
Bitpanda told staff on June 24, 2022, that it would scale down to a target of about 730 people, citing a hiring pace its own founders called unsustainable.
Markets & VenuesExecutive Hires
Hut 8 Mining Names Aniss Amdiss Chief Legal Officer
Hut 8 Mining Corp. named Aniss Amdiss chief legal officer on June 21, 2022, effective July 11, 2022, reporting to chief executive officer Jaime Leverton.
Markets & VenuesLayoffs
Coinbase Cuts 18% of Its Workforce in First Layoff Round
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong announced on June 14, 2022 that the exchange would cut 18% of its staff, about 1,100 employees, after what he called four times growth in 18 months left its costs too high for a down market.
Markets & VenuesExecutive Hires
Compute North Names Satyen Yadav Chief Technology Officer
Compute North named Satyen Yadav chief technology officer on June 6, 2022, and the bitcoin mining host filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy 108 days later, on September 22, 2022.
Markets & VenuesExecutive Hires
Paradigm Names Katie Biber Chief Legal Officer
Paradigm announced on June 6, 2022, that Katie Biber would join the crypto venture firm as chief legal officer after roles at Brex and Anchorage Digital.
Markets & VenuesExits and Removals
Riot's Jeff McGonegal Retires as Chief Financial Officer
Jeff McGonegal, Riot Blockchain's chief financial officer, announced his retirement on June 1, 2022, after twenty years with the company, with Colin Yee set to succeed him on Aug. 15, 2022.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
Chainlink Labs Names Former Google TensorFlow Lead Chief Product Officer
Chainlink Labs hired Kemal El Moujahid, the former director of product management for Google's TensorFlow, as chief product officer on May 16, 2022.
Markets & VenuesExecutive Hires
TeraWulf Names Patrick Fleury Chief Financial Officer
TeraWulf appointed Patrick Fleury chief financial officer on May 16, 2022, a hire CFO Dive detailed two years later as he steered the bitcoin miner out of a debt crunch and into AI-driven data centers.
Markets & VenuesExecutive Hires
HashKey Group Names David Leahy Chief Operating Officer
HashKey Group named J.P. Morgan veteran David Leahy chief operating officer of its exchange business on May 13, 2022, alongside a new senior risk advisor, as the group pursued trading licenses in three jurisdictions.
Markets & VenuesCEO Changes
Bitstamp Names JB Graftieaux Global Chief Executive
Bitstamp appointed JB Graftieaux global chief executive on May 9, 2022, replacing Julian Sawyer, after Graftieaux spent a year rebuilding the exchange's European business.
Markets & VenuesExecutive Hires
MicroStrategy Names Andrew Kang Chief Financial Officer
MicroStrategy named Andrew Kang its new chief financial officer on May 3, 2022, pulling him from the same post at Greensky, and shifted then-CFO Phong Le into the company presidency once Kang started that May 9.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Mance Harmon Dissolves His Hedera CEO Job for Swirlds Labs
Hedera Hashgraph, LLC dissolved its CEO and chief scientist roles on April 29, 2022.
Markets & VenuesExecutive Hires
Kraken Names Mayur Gupta Chief Marketing Officer
Kraken hired Mayur Gupta, the former Gannett and Spotify marketing chief, as chief marketing officer on April 19, 2022, the exchange's second executive hire that spring.
Payments & ConsumerExits and Removals
PayPal CFO John Rainey Departs for Walmart
PayPal announced on April 12, 2022, that Chief Financial Officer John Rainey would leave after almost seven years to become Walmart's next CFO, starting June 6, 2022, according to CFO Dive.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
Chainlink Labs Hires Dahlia Malkhi as Research Chief
Chainlink Labs named former Diem Association chief technology officer Dahlia Malkhi its chief research officer on March 29, 2022, CEO Sergey Nazarov's company announced.
Markets & VenuesBoard Seats
Robinhood Welcomes Meyer Malka to Its Board of Directors
Robinhood Markets added Ribbit Capital founder Meyer "Micky" Malka, an early investor in the brokerage, to its board on March 23, 2022.
Markets & VenuesExecutive Hires
Kraken Appoints Carrie Dolan Chief Financial Officer
Kraken named Carrie Dolan, a Lending Club and Charles Schwab veteran, chief financial officer on March 22, 2022, after she had settled SEC charges over fund returns Lending Club reported.
Payments & ConsumerBoard Seats
Ripple Appoints Michael Warren to Board of Directors
Ripple named Michael Warren, a former Obama White House senior adviser, to its board of directors on March 16, 2022, as the company kept adding Washington veterans while it fought the SEC.
Markets & VenuesCEO Changes
SEBA Bank Co-Founder Guido Buehler Steps Down as CEO
Guido Buehler, who co-founded SEBA Bank and ran it for four years, stepped down as chief executive on March 7, 2022, handing the role to Franz Bergmueller effective April 1, 2022.
ProtocolsExits and Removals
Blockstream's Samson Mow Departs as Chief Strategy Officer
Samson Mow left Blockstream on March 1, 2022, after five years as chief strategy officer, saying he would turn to nation-state Bitcoin adoption work instead.
ProtocolsLayer 1s & Infrastructure
Protolambda's Blobs Cut Rollup Fees and Ethereum's Rent
Protolambda's EIP-4844 dropped Base's median fee from $0.59 to under a cent in March 2024, and cut what Base pays Ethereum.
Markets & VenuesExecutive Hires
Celsius Network Names Rod Bolger Chief Financial Officer
Rod Bolger left RBC, Canada's largest bank, to become Celsius Network's Chief Financial Officer on February 22, 2022, replacing a predecessor Finance Magnates said was arrested in November in an unrelated Israeli fraud case.
ProtocolsLayer 1s & Infrastructure
Superphiz Takes On Prysm, and Lighthouse Inherits the Majority
A February 2022 post named Coinbase and Kraken as the biggest Prysm operators; by October 2026, Lighthouse ran 52.66 percent of consensus nodes.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Algorand Foundation Names Staci Warden Chief Executive
The Algorand Foundation named Staci Warden chief executive on February 10, 2022, and CoinDesk reported the same day that she replaced Sean Lee, who had led the foundation for 18 months.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Sean Lee Steps Down as Algorand Foundation CEO
The Algorand Foundation named Staci Warden chief executive on February 10, 2022, after Sean Lee decided to leave the role he had held for more than 18 months.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
Maple Finance Names Katherine Kirkpatrick General Counsel
Maple Finance named Katherine Kirkpatrick general counsel on February 7, 2022, putting a King & Spalding partner over the legal side of a lending platform chasing $5 billion in loans.
ProtocolsExits and Removals
True Names Limited Removes Brantly Millegan as Operations Director
True Names Limited terminated Brantly Millegan's contract as director of operations on February 7, 2022, after ENS DAO delegates voted over the weekend to remove him as a steward over a 2016 tweet.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Hiro Names Alex Miller Chief Executive Officer
Hiro promoted Chief Operating Officer Alex Miller to chief executive officer on Feb. 3, 2022, as founder Muneeb Ali moved to Executive Chairman and launched Trust Machines with $150 million in new funding.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Muneeb Ali Steps Down as Hiro Chief Executive Officer
Muneeb Ali stepped down as Hiro's chief executive officer on Feb. 3, 2022, becoming Executive Chairman and launching Trust Machines, a new Stacks ecosystem entity, with $150 million in funding.
Payments & ConsumerExecutive Hires
Paxos Names Ben Gray Global General Counsel
Paxos announced on February 3, 2022, that it had appointed Ben Gray, formerly Block's deputy general counsel, as its global general counsel to scale the company's compliance and legal teams.
Rules & RiskCEO Changes
Crypto Council for Innovation Names Sheila Warren CEO
The Crypto Council for Innovation named Sheila Warren its first chief executive officer on Jan. 31, 2022, pulling her from a digital assets post at the World Economic Forum.
ProtocolsBoard Seats
Chris Giancarlo Joins Digital Asset's Board
Digital Asset named former CFTC chairman Chris Giancarlo to its board of directors on Jan. 25, 2022, the year before its Canton Network blockchain began trading real-world assets for banks.
Markets & VenuesExecutive Hires
Gemini Names Pravjit Tiwana Chief Technology Officer
Gemini's co-founders welcomed Pravjit Tiwana as chief technology officer on January 24, 2022, a hire Crowdfund Insider independently reported the next day, and Bloomberg reported his exit 22 months later.
Markets & VenuesExecutive Hires
BitMEX Names Rupertus Rothenhaeuser Commercial Chief
BitMEX hired Rupertus Rothenhaeuser as chief commercial officer on Jan. 3, 2022, to run an expansion beyond derivatives into spot trading, brokerage and custody.
