Latest in Crypto Hiring: Binance, FTX Make Key Additions

Binance hired Joshua Eaton, a former deputy US attorney in the Northern District of California, as its deputy general counsel.

Before becoming an attorney at the Department of Justice, Eaton was a line prosecutor and senior staff advisor in the US Army. In both roles, he offered counsel on a range of complex operations, investigations, litigation and policies. 

Eaton said he became interested in crypto while working at the US attorney’s office, where he realized the importance of preventing bad actors from abusing blockchain technology for personal gain.

He will now lead the largest crypto exchange’s legal affairs group, supporting global compliance, investigations and law enforcement coordination activities. 

Binance also revealed its appointment of Jarek Jakubcek as the company’s head of intelligence and investigations for the Asia Pacific region. 

Jakubcek previously worked for seven years as a cryptocurrency specialist in Europol Cybercrime Centre’s dark web team. Prior to Europol, he spent about five years at An Garda Siochana, Ireland’s National Police and Security Service.

At Binance, Jarek will work with law enforcement agencies to coordinate the takedown of malicious crypto actors.

The US affiliate of crypto exchange FTX hired Marissa MacDonald to be the chief compliance officer of FTX Trust Company — FTX.US’s New York division that’s pending regulatory approval.  

FTX.US also disclosed it applied for a trust charter with the New York Department of Financial Services to operate in the state.

MacDonald most recently worked as chief compliance officer at Fidelity Digital Assets. She began her career at Ernst & Young.

Metaplex Studios hired former Paxos interim chief marketing officer Julie Mossler as its chief marketing officer to expand the range of projects built on the Metaplex protocol. 

In less than a year, the Metaplex protocol has been used to mint more than 11 million NFTs, which have generated $2.6 billion in sales, according to the organization.

Before working at crypto company Paxos, Mossler was head of global marketing and brand at Waze and also served as head of global communications at Groupon.

Crypto exchange Bitstamp appointed JB Graftieaux as its new global CEO after he joined the company in May 2021 as its Europe chief executive.

He succeeds Julian Sawyer, who decided to pursue other opportunities, the company said Monday.

Graftieaux previously held executive roles at eBay and PayPal. He was also Bitstamp’s chief compliance officer between 2014 and 2016, helping the company obtain regulatory licenses.  

Asia-based digital asset financial services group HashKey Group appointed David Leahy as chief operating officer of the company’s exchange business and WK Chim as senior advisor to the board.

Leahy joins from JPMorgan in Hong Kong, where he was most recently a managing director and head of the Financial Sponsors Group for Asia. He previously worked in senior alternative investments roles at Credit Suisse.

Chim, who will focus on providing independent assessment and advice on the risk frameworks and policies across HashKey, currently serves as independent non-executive director of OCBC Wing Hang Bank and chairs the bank’s risk management committee.

Blockchain platform Infinite Arcade, which is focused on bringing the mobile games industry into the metaverse, appointed Andrew Dubatowka as a core contributor of product marketing. 

Dubatowka previously spent four years as a senior director of global marketing at financial services giant Visa and has also worked in senior roles at IPG Mediabrands and AdColony. He has worked with brands and clients such as Intel, Johnson & Johnson, Google, Pandora, Charles Schwab and Wells Fargo.

“The project is all about a firm belief in two things: the benefits that blockchain technology can bring to the games industry; and, through these benefits, that gaming will be the ramp that onboards hundreds of millions of people into web3,” Dubatowka said in a statement.

Canada-based virtual currency brokerage Secure Digital Markets (SDM) said this week Wall Street veteran Alan Mittleman joined the firm on May 2 as chief operating officer.

Mittleman most recently worked at NatWest Markets as its global head of USD fixed income trading. From 2011 to 2015, he was global head of USD rates trading for Société Générale. He held other roles at Bear Stearns, Credit Suisse First Boston and Price Waterhouse.

Zachary Friedman, SDM’s co-founder and former COO, is now the company’s chief strategy officer.

Crypto financial services company EQONEX hired Daniel Ling as chief financial officer and a member of its executive committee.

The move comes as Paul Ewing, the company’s previous CFO, was appointed as chief operating officer (COO) following former COO Andrew Eldon’s resignation to pursue other opportunities.

Ling had recently been appointed to EQONEX’s board of directors as part of the company’s strategic partnership with payments technology company Bifinity, where Ling was director of strategy. 

Before Bifinity, he was CFO at Pujiang International Group and also previously worked at Bridgewater Associates, PricewaterhouseCoopers, the Singapore Exchange and ShoreVest Capital.