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ProtocolsDeFi Protocols
Crypto Lending's Comeback Still Needs the Same Bridges
Lending protocols recovered 55 percent since July, but the bridges and oracles that caused April's $292 million hack still carry every loan.
ProtocolsLayer 1s & Infrastructure
CZ Doubts Solana Organizers After Shanghai Police Visit
Binance's CZ questioned Solana's planning after police visited its first Shanghai tour stop this week.
ProtocolsAI and Crypto
An OpenAI Agent Spends a Stranger's Wallet
OpenAI says its research model found a public key and spent test coins owned by someone else.
ProtocolsProtocol Research
Bitcoin Skipped the NIST Curve a 1997 Clock Just Explained
Claude traced NIST's curve seeds to a Unix clock in 1997, and Bitcoin has run all along on secp256k1, a curve built a different way.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
BNB Chain Names Thomas Chen Chief Business Officer
BNB Chain announced on September 28, 2026, that it had appointed Thomas Chen, the former CEO of the Bitcoin yield protocol Function, as its first chief business officer.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
Solana Foundation Names Rachel Conlan Strategy Chief
Solana Foundation hired former Binance marketing chief Rachel Conlan as chief strategy officer on September 24, 2026, as the network pushes to bring institutional payments and tokenized assets onchain.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Michael Weisz Becomes CEO of the Solana Lender Kamino
Yieldstreet co-founder Michael Weisz became CEO of the Solana lending protocol Kamino on Sept. 15, 2026.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
William Herkelrath Replaces Staci Warden at the Algorand Foundation
The Algorand Foundation swapped its chief executive and two of its five directors on Sept. 9, and Adam Back's decade-long quantum timeline frames the case against its new pitch.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
Ava Labs Names Lydia Chiu Permanent Chief Financial Officer
Ava Labs promoted Lydia Chiu from interim to permanent chief financial officer on August 18, 2026, as John Wu moved to senior advisor and handed the presidency to Charley Cooper.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
John Wu Hands the Ava Labs Presidency to Charley Cooper
Ava Labs' John Wu appointed Charley Cooper president on Aug. 18, 2026, moved himself to senior advisor, and named interim CFO Lydia Chiu to the role on a permanent basis.
ProtocolsExits and Removals
Ava Labs' John Wu Steps Down as President
John Wu moved himself from president to senior advisor at Ava Labs on Aug. 18, 2026, handing the title to Charley Cooper after seven years building the company from ten Cornellians in Brooklyn.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
Compound Foundation Names a COO, CPO and CTO
Compound Foundation named a COO, a CPO and a CTO on Aug. 17, 2026.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Alexander Urbelis Becomes the ENS Foundation's First Executive Director
ENS tokenholders voted 1.27 million to 480,690 on Aug. 8, 2026 to seat Alexander Urbelis and three independent directors.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
Adam Schlisman and Allison Parent Join Ondo Finance's Executive Ranks
Ondo Finance hired Adam Schlisman as chief financial officer on August 5, 2026, and Allison Parent as chief policy officer on August 28, 2026, three months after founder Nathan Allman's death opened a Delaware court fight over who runs the company.
ProtocolsLayoffs
Noah Tweedale Fires Dozens at Pump.fun Before Tokens Vest
Pump.fun cut more than 40 staff in two rounds starting in early April 2026, weeks before the first quarter of their PUMP token grants was due to vest in June. The company's own team and investors collected a $102 million unlock in July.
ProtocolsExits and Removals
1inch Confirms Co-Founder Anton Bukov's Exit From Operations
1inch confirmed on July 16, 2026, that co-founder Anton Bukov had stopped contributing to the project since December 2025, after Bukov said on X that he had been fired in late November 2025.
ProtocolsBoard Seats
Michael Kong Resigns From Sonic Labs Board
Michael Kong left the Sonic Labs board on June 19, 2026, eight years after joining Fantom, as Crowdfund Insider reported the S token down 97 percent from its all-time high.
ProtocolsBoard Seats
Andre Cronje Resigns From the Sonic Labs Board
Sonic Labs announced on June 19, 2026, that Andre Cronje would resign from its board with two other longtime directors.
ProtocolsBoard Seats
pcaversaccio Joins the Ethereum Foundation Board After 54 Job Cuts
Hsiao-Wei Wang left on June 18, 2026, the Ethereum Foundation cut 54 jobs on June 23, and pcaversaccio joined its board on July 29.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Helium Names Mario Di Dio Chief Executive
Nova Labs, the company behind Helium, promoted network operations veteran Mario Di Dio to chief executive on June 4, 2026, as founder Amir Haleem moved to chairman.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Amir Haleem Steps Down as Helium CEO
Nova Labs, the company behind Helium, said on June 4, 2026, that founder Amir Haleem would move to chairman while Mario Di Dio takes over as chief executive.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Ian De Bode Succeeds Nathan Allman at Ondo Finance
Ondo Finance named its president CEO in the post that announced founder Nathan Allman's death on May 25, 2026.
ProtocolsLayoffs
Dune Cuts a Quarter of Its Staff, CEO Says
Dune co-founder and CEO Fredrik Haga said on May 14, 2026 that the crypto data firm had let 25 percent of its team go that week, pointing to AI tools and institutional demand as the reasons to restructure.
ProtocolsExits and Removals
MetaMask Co-Founder Dan Finlay Leaves Consensys
Dan Finlay announced on X that April 22, 2026, was his last day at Consensys, ending more than ten years building MetaMask and citing burnout and family time.
ProtocolsExits and Removals
Oren Katz Leaves StarkWare as It Splits Into Two Units
Oren Katz, StarkWare's chief operating officer, resigned on April 13, 2026, the day CEO Eli Ben-Sasson told staff the company would cut jobs and split into two business units.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Messari Names Diran Li Chief Executive Officer
Messari CEO Eric Turner handed the role to seven-year CTO Diran Li on March 16, 2026, alongside a round of layoffs the firm tied to an AI-first pivot.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Ajit Tripathi Takes Over the Eigen Foundation From Robert Drost
The Eigen Foundation named Tripathi executive director on March 13, 2026 and moved founding director Drost to senior adviser.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
Bruno Martins Replaces Nik Bougalis as Algorand's CTO Before Layoffs
The Algorand Foundation named Bruno Martins acting CTO on March 1, 2026, cut a quarter of its staff on March 18, and absorbed Algorand Technologies on March 19.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Bastian Aue Replaces Tomasz Stańczak as Ethereum Foundation Co-Director
Tomasz Stańczak announced on February 13, 2026 that he would leave his Ethereum Foundation co-executive director post at the end of the month, and the Foundation's board named Bastian Aue interim co-executive director the same day.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Const and ShibShib Give Up Opentensor's Two Top Titles
Bittensor's two co-founders left the CEO and COO jobs at the Opentensor Foundation on Feb. 12, 2026, and a subnet team later accused Const of keeping the control that came with them.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
Chainalysis Names Sebastien Giroux Chief Financial Officer
Chainalysis named Sebastien Giroux chief financial officer the week of February 3, 2026, bringing in an executive who had spent more than three years as CFO of Productboard.
ProtocolsExits and Removals
Luigi D'Onorio DeMeo Steps Down as Ava Labs Strategy Chief
Luigi D'Onorio DeMeo posted his exit as Ava Labs chief strategy officer on Jan. 15, 2026, after nearly five years, and said he will finish his term on the Avalanche Foundation board.
ProtocolsBoard Seats
Bill Barhydt Chairs the Algorand Foundation's New Delaware Board
The Algorand Foundation moved its headquarters from Singapore to Delaware and seated four outside directors on January 14, 2026.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Josh Swihart Quits Electric Coin Company With Its Whole Team
Electric Coin Company's chief executive announced on Jan. 7, 2026 that its entire team had left the nonprofit that governed it.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Sushi Names Alex McCurry Chief Executive
PANews reported on December 1, 2025, that Jared Grey would step down as Sushi's top leader, and PR Newswire carried Sushi's own announcement that Alex McCurry had joined as chief executive on December 16, 2025.
ProtocolsExits and Removals
Sushi Labs Managing Director Jared Grey Steps Down
Jared Grey announced on Dec. 1, 2025 that he would step down as Sushi's Head Chef and Sushi Labs managing director for an advisory role, as Synthesis founder Alex McCurry took over and invested in the protocol.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
Danika Delano Becomes Chief Operating Officer at the Zcash Foundation
The Zcash Foundation promoted Danika Delano from operations director to chief operating officer on November 11, 2025.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
Zcash Foundation Names Alex Bornstein Executive Director
The Zcash Foundation's board appointed Alex Bornstein executive director effective November 1, 2025, making permanent the role he had held on an interim basis since March.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
Alchemy Names AWS Veteran Bill Platt Chief Operating Officer
Alchemy announced on October 28, 2025, that it had hired Bill Platt, a former Amazon Web Services executive, as chief operating officer to scale its blockchain infrastructure for institutional demand.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
TON Foundation Names Gerardo Carucci Chief Marketing Officer
TON Foundation hired former Apple and Nike marketing executive Gerardo Carucci as chief marketing officer on October 1, 2025, seven months before Telegram founder Pavel Durov said Telegram would take over the foundation's role.
ProtocolsBoard Seats
0G Foundation Appoints Jonathan Chang to Its Board
0G Foundation named Dr. Jonathan Chang a director on September 30, 2025, after 0G announced the launch of Aristotle Mainnet, its decentralized AI network, to advance policy ties for the project.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Mitchell Demeter Runs Sonic Labs for 145 Days
Sonic Labs named Mitchell Demeter CEO on Sept. 28, 2025, when Michael Kong became chief information officer.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
Polygon Labs Names John Egan Chief Product Officer
Stripe's head of crypto, John Egan, announced on Sept. 15, 2025, that he had joined Polygon Labs as its first chief product officer, starting the next day.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
Stable Names Sam Kazemian Chief Technology Officer
Frax Finance founder Sam Kazemian said on X on Aug. 28, 2025, that he had joined stablecoin network Stable as chief technology officer while staying on as Frax's chief executive.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Gavin Wood Takes Parity Technologies Back From Björn Wagner
Parity's co-founder announced on Aug. 13, 2025 that he would resume the CEO role in late August, and a year later the Polkadot treasury spends $7.4 million a quarter.
ProtocolsLayoffs
Lido Cuts 15% of Its Contributor Teams
Lido co-founder Vasiliy Shapovalov said on August 1, 2025, that Lido Labs, Lido Ecosystem and Lido Alliance would cut 15% of their contributor teams to control costs despite a market upswing.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
SY Lee Rebuilds Story Protocol's Leadership Around AI Data
Within 30 days in 2025, Story Protocol lost co-founder Jason Zhao and gave SY Lee, Andrea Muttoni and Sandeep Chinchali the top seats, a reset aimed at AI training data.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
Stellar Names José Fernández da Ponte President
The Stellar Development Foundation named José Fernández da Ponte, PayPal's former blockchain lead, president and chief growth officer on July 16, 2025, CoinDesk and the foundation's own blog both reported that day.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
Stellar Names Jason Karsh Chief Marketing Officer
The Stellar Development Foundation hired Jason Karsh, a former Block and Blockchain.com marketing executive, as chief marketing officer on July 16, 2025, its own blog and CoinDesk both reported that day.
ProtocolsExits and Removals
Mary-Catherine Lader Quits as Uniswap Labs' President and COO
Mary-Catherine Lader, Uniswap Labs' first chief operating officer, left the role on July 15, 2025, after four years.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
ASI Alliance Names David Taylor Chief Marketing Officer
The Artificial Superintelligence Alliance and SingularityNET named former Cardano Foundation marketing chief David Taylor to a newly created chief marketing officer role on July 15, 2025, as the Alliance marked its first anniversary.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
Aptos Labs Names Solomon Tesfaye Chief Business Officer
Solomon Tesfaye moved up from Aptos Labs' head of capital markets to chief business officer on July 10, 2025, as the network said its tokenized real-world assets had passed $540 million.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
Safe Foundation Names Rahul Rumalla CEO of Safe Labs
Safe Ecosystem Foundation named Rahul Rumalla chief executive of its new subsidiary Safe Labs on June 5, 2025, and CoinDesk reported the entity would take over development work the wallet had outsourced for years.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Sandeep Nailwal Becomes the Polygon Foundation's First CEO
Mihailo Bjelic left the Polygon Foundation board on May 23, 2025, and Sandeep Nailwal became its first CEO on June 11.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
Midnight Foundation Names Fahmi Syed President
The Midnight Foundation launched on May 13, 2025, naming Fahmi Syed president of the organization that guides the Midnight blockchain's path to decentralization.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Torab Torabi Takes Movement After a $38 Million Token Dump
Torab Torabi became chief executive of Move Industries on May 7, 2025, a week after CoinDesk's token-dump report, and the dispute over who answers for the launch has since reached Delaware's courts.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
io.net's Tory Green Trades the CEO Job for Foundation Chair
io.net announced on April 23, 2025, that co-founder Tory Green would chair the io.net Foundation while chief technology officer Gaurav Sharma took over as chief executive.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
io.net Promotes Gaurav Sharma to Chief Executive
io.net named its chief technology officer, Gaurav Sharma, chief executive on April 23, 2025, the same day it named co-founder Tory Green chairperson of the io.net Foundation.
ProtocolsLayoffs
Safe Cuts 14 Jobs in Restructuring After Bybit Hack
Safe co-founder Lukas Schor announced on April 16, 2025, that the self-custody wallet had laid off 14 employees and would split into three teams following February's $1.43 billion Bybit hack.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
Sei Development Foundation Names Justin Barlow Director
The Sei Development Foundation launched in Manhattan on April 2, 2025, with Justin Barlow as its executive director, built to grow the Sei blockchain's presence inside the United States.
ProtocolsExits and Removals
Jack Gavigan Steps Down as Zcash Foundation Executive Director
Jack Gavigan stepped down as Zcash Foundation executive director on March 4, 2025, after four years in the role, handing interim leadership to Chief Operating Officer Alex Bornstein.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Aya Miyaguchi Hands the Ethereum Foundation to Two Co-Directors
Aya Miyaguchi moved from executive director to president on Feb. 25, 2025, two co-directors took over on March 1.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
0G Labs Names Conflux Co-Founder Ming Wu CTO
0G Labs named Conflux Network co-founder Dr. Ming Wu its chief technology officer on February 13, 2025, putting a veteran of the blockchain trilemma debate in charge of its decentralized AI stack.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
Mantle Network Names Brian Trunzo Chief Growth Officer
Brian Trunzo left his post as Polygon Labs' global head of business development to become Mantle Network's chief growth officer on February 11, 2025, one of five executive hires the network announced the same day.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
Walrus Foundation Names Rebecca Simmonds Managing Executive
Walrus Foundation appointed former Vega Protocol executive Rebecca Simmonds as Managing Executive on February 5, 2025, four months after the decentralized storage network's October 2024 testnet launch.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Edge & Node Names Rodrigo Coelho Chief Executive Officer
Edge & Node named Rodrigo Coelho, The Graph's first hire, as chief executive officer on Jan. 23, 2025, succeeding Tegan Kline after she led the ecosystem's Sunrise of Decentralized Data initiative.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Manuel Stotz Replaces Steve Yun as TON Foundation President
The TON Foundation named Kingsway Capital founder Manuel Stotz its president on Jan. 14, 2025.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
Offchain Labs Names Ira Auerbach Head of Tandem
Offchain Labs appointed Ira Auerbach, Nasdaq's former head of digital assets, to lead Tandem, its partner studio and venture capital arm, on January 9, 2025.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
Mysten Labs Promotes Kevin Boon to President
Mysten Labs promoted its chief legal officer Kevin Boon to president on January 9, 2025, as the Sui blockchain developer prepared to launch Walrus Protocol's mainnet and named a new general counsel weeks later.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Hedera Foundation Names Charles Adkins Chief Executive
The HBAR Foundation rebranded itself Hedera Foundation on Dec. 20, 2024, and named Charles Adkins chief executive effective Jan. 1, 2025, moving him from president of Hedera Hashgraph into the new role.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Avery Ching Succeeds Mo Shaikh as Aptos Labs CEO
Aptos Labs' chief technology officer became its chief executive on Dec. 19, 2024, the day co-founder Mo Shaikh stepped down, and a crypto outlet has since pressed the case that the exit came at a convenient time.
ProtocolsBoard Seats
Interchain Foundation's Ethan Buchman Resigns From Foundation Council
Cosmos co-founder Ethan Buchman stepped down from the Interchain Foundation's Foundation Council on December 10, 2024, as the foundation acquired Skip, and he formally confirmed the resignation in a February 19, 2025 letter.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
Interchain Foundation Names Maghnus Mareneck to Lead Interchain Inc.
Interchain Foundation named Skip co-founder Maghnus Mareneck co-lead of its new subsidiary, Interchain Inc., on December 10, 2024, the same day it acquired Skip and Ethan Buchman stepped down from its council.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
Interchain Foundation Names Barry Plunkett to Lead Interchain Inc.
Interchain Foundation named Skip co-founder Barry Plunkett co-lead of its new subsidiary, Interchain Inc., on December 10, 2024, the same day it acquired Skip and Ethan Buchman left the foundation's council.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Chainalysis Co-Founder Michael Gronager Steps Down as CEO
Chainalysis named co-founder Jonathan Levin chief executive officer on December 5, 2024, after Michael Gronager, the company's other co-founder, agreed with the board to step down from the role and the board itself.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
1inch Names Hedi Navazan Chief Compliance Officer
1inch Group announced on November 6, 2024, that it had hired Hedi Navazan, a former HSBC financial crime executive, as chief compliance officer to oversee its legal and security teams.
ProtocolsLayoffs
Consensys Cuts 20 Percent of Its Workforce
Consensys cut 162 employees on October 29, 2024, a cut it put at 20 percent of its team, as CEO Joe Lubin told Cointelegraph the firm was moving to decentralize MetaMask, Linea and its other Ethereum products.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
Blockstream Names Michael Minkevich Chief Operating Officer
Blockstream appointed Michael Minkevich chief operating officer on October 15, 2024, the same day it announced a $210 million convertible note round led by Fulgur Ventures.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Antonio Juliano Retakes dYdX Trading and Lays Off 35 Percent
Antonio Juliano resumed the CEO role at dYdX Trading on Oct. 10, 2024 and cut 35 percent of the core team on Oct. 29. Open interest on the dYdX chain tripled in 58 days, then fell 75.1 percent below its level on the day he returned.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
Thesis Names Katherine Snow General Counsel
Thesis, the Bitcoin-focused venture studio behind Threshold Network and Fold, named Katherine Snow general counsel on October 3, 2024, hiring her away from crypto data platform Messari.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
Quant Network Names Lenna Russ Chief Commercial Officer
Quant Network named Lenna Russ to the newly created role of chief commercial officer on September 10, 2024, pulling her from three years as chief revenue officer at the trade-finance marketplace Tradeteq.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
June Ou Named Interim Executive Director at Provenance
Provenance Blockchain Foundation named June Ou interim executive director on August 2, 2024, as it carved out Provenance Blockchain Labs and moved Anthony Moro into the new unit's CEO seat.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
aelf Names Brian Liang Its First Chief Operating Officer
aelf named Brian Liang its first chief operating officer on July 24, 2024, a Web3 finance executive who also sits on the board of Singapore exchange Coinhako.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Jayson Hobby Steps Down as Compound Labs Chief Executive
Jayson Hobby posted on X on July 10, 2024, that he was stepping down as Compound Labs' chief executive, and Bitget reported two days later that he had founded a new DeFi protocol called Legend.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
Ben Grossman Sells Tokenized Stocks From His Own Feed
Ondo Finance's VP of Marketing posted his way to a billion-dollar tokenized-stock book while Hester Peirce and Benjamin Schiffrin pressed the case that the old rules still apply.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Polymesh Association Names Bill Papp Chief Executive
The Polymesh Association named Bill Papp chief executive officer and executive director on June 20, 2024, succeeding Graeme Moore, who had led the group for eight months and stayed on as head of tokenization.
ProtocolsExits and Removals
Uniswap Labs Chief Legal Officer Marvin Ammori Hands Off Role
Marvin Ammori announced on June 10, 2024, that he was handing the Uniswap Labs chief legal officer post to Katherine Minarik, a former Coinbase deputy general counsel, as the firm faced a possible SEC lawsuit.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
io.net Names Co-Founder Tory Green Chief Executive
io.net co-founder Tory Green took over as chief executive on June 9, 2024, two days before the network's token launch, after Ahmad Shadid stepped down, citing allegations about his past.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Ivo Crnkovic-Rubsamen Leads dYdX Trading for 150 Days
dYdX Trading's operating partner became CEO on May 13, 2024, when founder Antonio Juliano moved to chairman. Juliano resumed the job on Oct. 10.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
Venice AI Names Teana Baker-Taylor Chief Operating Officer
Teana Baker-Taylor, formerly Circle's vice president of policy and regulatory strategy, joined Erik Voorhees's Venice as chief operating officer in a venture DL News reported on May 10, 2024.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
Cardano Foundation Names Giorgio Zinetti Chief Technology Officer
The Cardano Foundation named Giorgio Zinetti its first chief technology officer on May 8, 2024, putting the Procivis AG co-founder in charge of the Foundation's product pipeline.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Artificial Superintelligence Alliance Names Ben Goertzel CEO
Fetch.ai, SingularityNET and Ocean Protocol announced on March 27, 2024 that their merger into the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance would carry a combined value of $7.5 billion, with SingularityNET's Ben Goertzel as chief executive.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Zac Prince Leaves BlockFi for Real Estate Startup
BlockFi founder Zac Prince posted on X on March 10, 2024, that he was leaving the bankrupt crypto lender, and CoinDesk reported the next day he had joined a real estate tax startup, Re Cost Seg.
ProtocolsBoard Seats
R3 Appoints UK Finance Chairman Bob Wigley to Its Board
Bob Wigley, chairman of the UK Finance trade body, joined the board of enterprise blockchain firm R3 as an outside director, R3 announced on February 22, 2024, after a tokenization taskforce he led published its own report the year before.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
Reserve Names Thomas Mattimore CEO of ABC Labs
Reserve co-founder Nevin Freeman named Thomas Mattimore chief executive of ABC Labs on Jan. 25, 2024, splitting protocol development from the new fund Confusion Capital inside the Reserve ecosystem.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Uri Kolodny Steps Down as StarkWare Chief Executive
Uri Kolodny told followers on X on January 11, 2024, that he was stepping down as StarkWare's chief executive to care for a family member, and The Block confirmed the move the same day.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Zooko Wilcox Steps Down as Electric Coin Company CEO
Electric Coin Company's parent board named Josh Swihart chief executive on December 18, 2023, ending Zooko Wilcox's eight years running the firm behind Zcash.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Josh Swihart Named Electric Coin Company Chief Executive
Electric Coin Company's parent board announced on December 18, 2023, that Josh Swihart would replace Zooko Wilcox as chief executive, a move Blockchain.News confirmed two days later.
ProtocolsBoard Seats
Hedera Council Names Charles Adkins President
The Hedera Council appointed Charles Adkins president on December 13, 2023, bringing in an executive with prior roles at Aptos, Polygon Labs and the U.S. Treasury Department.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Illia Polosukhin Replaces Chris Donovan as NEAR Foundation CEO
NEAR's co-founder became Foundation CEO on Nov. 7, 2023 and Chris Donovan moved to COO.
ProtocolsLayoffs
Emin Gün Sirer Cuts 12 Percent of Ava Labs Staff
Ava Labs founder and CEO Emin Gün Sirer confirmed a 12 percent staff cut on November 7, 2023, calling it a move to double down on growth.
ProtocolsExits and Removals
Polygon Co-Founder Jaynti Kanani Steps Back
Jaynti Kanani told followers on Oct. 4, 2023, that he had quietly left Polygon's day-to-day work about six months earlier, closing out his run as one of the network's three founders.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Chris Donovan Takes Over NEAR Foundation From Marieke Flament
Chris Donovan, NEAR Foundation's general counsel, became CEO on September 21, 2023, the day Marieke Flament resigned, and held the job 47 days before NEAR co-founder Illia Polosukhin replaced him on November 7, 2023.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Chris Amani Replaces Do Kwon as Terraform Labs CEO
Chris Amani became Terraform Labs CEO in March 2023, the news broke July 19.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Marc Boiron Replaces Ryan Wyatt as Polygon Labs CEO
Polygon Labs promoted its chief legal officer to CEO on July 7, 2023, and by 2026 the company called itself a payments business while a token holder asked what holders own.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Jayson Hobby Takes Over Compound Labs From Robert Leshner
Compound Labs' VP of Product became CEO on June 28, 2023, the day founder Robert Leshner announced Superstate.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
IOG Names Eran Barak Chief Executive of Midnight
Input Output Global named Eran Barak, formerly chief operating officer at Symphony, as chief executive of Midnight on March 27, 2023, handing the Cardano builder's new data-protection blockchain its first dedicated leader.
ProtocolsBoard Seats
Stellar Development Foundation Names Asiff Hirji to Its Board
The Stellar Development Foundation appointed MoonPay president Asiff Hirji to its board of directors on March 9, 2023, adding a former Coinbase president and chief operating officer to the nonprofit's governance.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
Algorand Names Matthew Commons Chief Financial Officer
Algorand named Matthew Commons its first chief financial officer on March 1, 2023, effective Feb. 22, giving the Harvard Business School graduate and Cambridge Blockchain co-founder control of day-to-day finances and capital management.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
Polygon Labs Names Rebecca Rettig Chief Policy Officer
Rebecca Rettig left Silvergate Bank's board on Feb. 9, 2023, to become Polygon Labs' first chief policy officer, the same day the bank told regulators her exit was an amicable one.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Justin Sun Trades the TRON Foundation for Grenada's WTO Seat
TRON's founder gave up the Foundation's CEO role on December 17, 2021 to become Grenada's WTO ambassador.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
nChain Appoints Hakan Yuksel Chief Executive Officer
nChain named Hakan Yuksel chief executive officer on October 20, 2021, bringing in a 20-year enterprise software veteran of Oracle and SAP to succeed David Washburn in Zug, Switzerland.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
David Washburn Departs as nChain Chief Executive
nChain replaced David Washburn as chief executive with Hakan Yuksel on October 20, 2021, thanking Washburn for launching the Kensei data integrity platform during his two and a half years.
ProtocolsExits and Removals
Sushi's 0xMaki Steps Down Into Advisory Role
Sushi core contributor 0xMaki announced on September 18, 2021, that he was leaving day-to-day operations at the decentralized exchange for an advisory role.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Shayne Higdon Becomes the HBAR Foundation's First CEO
Hedera named Shayne Higdon first CEO of the HBAR Foundation on September 16, 2021. He left in August 2024, and the Foundation's grants, funds and on-chain activity followed a separate path.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
Injective Labs Names Brandon Ferrick First General Counsel
Injective Labs hired Sullivan & Cromwell associate Brandon Ferrick as its first general counsel, Bloomberg Law reported Sept. 3, 2021, giving the decentralized trading protocol its first in-house lawyer.
ProtocolsBoard Seats
Christopher Giancarlo Steps Down From BlockFi Board
BlockFi said on September 1, 2021, that former CFTC chairman Christopher Giancarlo was leaving its board after four months, replaced by William Blair executive Ellen-Blair Chube.
ProtocolsBoard Seats
BlockFi Names Ellen-Blair Chube to Board
BlockFi announced on September 1, 2021, that William Blair managing director Ellen-Blair Chube had joined its board of directors, taking the seat left by former CFTC chairman Christopher Giancarlo.
ProtocolsBoard Seats
Jillian MacNab Succeeds Nathan Kaiser as Cardano Foundation Chairperson
A Swiss financial lawyer took the Cardano Foundation Council's chair on June 9, 2021, and by Sept. 8 the members who preceded her had recruited their own successors.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
Ava Labs Names Lee Schneider Its First General Counsel
Ava Labs hired Lee Schneider, the former general counsel of Block.one, as its first general counsel on May 27, 2021, to run legal matters and government affairs for the Avalanche blockchain.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Frederik Gregaard Becomes the Cardano Foundation's First CEO
The Cardano Foundation named Frederik Gregaard its first CEO on September 21, 2020, when it employed 30 people.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Josh Cincinnati Resigns as the Zcash Foundation's First Executive Director
The Zcash Foundation's executive director resigned on July 31, 2020, citing lost trust with the Electric Coin Company.
ProtocolsExits and Removals
Josh Cincinnati Resigns as Zcash Foundation Executive Director
Josh Cincinnati announced on July 31, 2020, that he was resigning as the Zcash Foundation's executive director, citing a broken relationship with the Electric Coin Company's leadership.
ProtocolsBoard Seats
Hubertus Thonhauser Takes the Tezos Foundation Chair From Ryan Jesperson
The Tezos Foundation announced on May 18, 2020 that its president would leave the Council and Hubertus Thonhauser would chair it.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
Input Output Global Names Romain Pellerin Chief Technology Officer
IOHK, the company behind Cardano, announced on April 7, 2020, that Romain Pellerin would become its chief technology officer alongside a new chief commercial officer.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Jae Kwon Steps Down as Tendermint CEO After Six Years
Jae Kwon, Tendermint Inc.'s founder, gave up the chief executive title on February 4, 2020, promising a company run by a decentralized 'Process' instead of one person.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Digital Asset Names AG Gangadhar Acting Chief Executive
Digital Asset named board member AG Gangadhar its chairman and acting chief executive on December 18, 2018, after Blythe Masters requested to step down from the role for personal reasons.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Blythe Masters Steps Down as Digital Asset CEO
Blythe Masters resigned as chief executive officer of Digital Asset on December 18, 2018, after three years running the distributed ledger firm, handing the role to board chairman AG Gangadhar on an acting basis.
ProtocolsBoard Seats
Digital Asset Adds Tony James to Its Board
Digital Asset named Blackstone's Tony James to its board of directors on July 18, 2018, alongside two other new directors, as the DAML developer pushed to scale its ledger technology for banks.
ProtocolsBoard Seats
Digital Asset Adds Stephan Leithner to Its Board
Digital Asset named Deutsche Börse Group executive board member Stephan Leithner to its board of directors on July 18, 2018, pairing Deutsche Börse's post-trade expertise with the company's ledger technology.
ProtocolsBoard Seats
Digital Asset Adds AG Gangadhar to Its Board
Digital Asset named former Google and Amazon engineering executive AG Gangadhar to its board on July 18, 2018, five months before the board made him acting chief executive.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Ming Chan Steps Down as Ethereum Foundation's Executive Director
Ming Chan left the Ethereum Foundation's top staff role on January 31, 2018, after two and a half years guiding the organization through the DAO hack and the 2016 denial-of-service attacks.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Ethereum Foundation Names Aya Miyaguchi Executive Director
Aya Miyaguchi left her post as Kraken Japan's managing director to become the Ethereum Foundation's executive director on February 1, 2018, succeeding Ming Chan.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
nChain Group Names Jimmy Nguyen Chief Executive Officer
nChain Group promoted Jimmy Nguyen from chief business officer to chief executive officer on December 5, 2017, as prior CEO Stefan Matthews moved into the chairman's seat.
ProtocolsLayer 1s & Infrastructure
Nick Johnson Makes a Name for Ethereum's Addresses
Nick Johnson's naming registrar went live on May 4, 2017; .eth fees peaked at $55.40 million in 2022, and squatting has trailed it since launch.
ProtocolsExecutive Hires
Chain Names Tom Jessop as President
Chain Inc. named Tom Jessop president on April 17, 2017, pulling a 17-year Goldman Sachs veteran into the enterprise blockchain company CEO Adam Ludwin had built since 2014.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Blockstream's Austin Hill Steps Down as Chief Executive
Austin Hill left Blockstream's board and the CEO job on October 3, 2016, handing the role to co-founder Adam Back after two years as its first chief executive.
ProtocolsCEO Changes
Blockstream Names Co-Founder Adam Back Chief Executive
Blockstream's board unanimously appointed co-founder Adam Back chief executive on October 3, 2016, replacing Austin Hill as he stepped down to pursue other opportunities.
ProtocolsLayer 1s & Infrastructure
Fabian Vogelsteller Files Issue 20, and Tokens Follow
Fabian Vogelsteller posted a six-function token standard in 2015; by October 2026, Ethereum and Tron, which matches it, held 77.3 percent of dollar stablecoins.
