Latest in Crypto Hiring: Chainlink Labs, Binance.US, 3iQ Make Key Additions

Canada’s largest digital asset investment fund manager names ex-Credit Suisse executive as new research head

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key takeaways

  • Former pro at CME Group, JPMorgan and Citadel Securities joins BlockFi
  • Director of finance at Galaxy Digital departs to be INX’s chief financial officer

Chainlink Labs hired Kemal El Moujahid, who previously worked as director of product management for Google’s open-source machine learning platform TensorFlow, as its chief product officer.

Prior to his work on TensorFlow, El Moujahid was at Meta — formerly Facebook — where he launched the company’s Messenger platform.

The appointment is the latest in a string of additions for Chainlink Labs, which offers open-source blockchain oracle solutions. 

The company also recently hired former Diem Association chief technology officer Dahlia Malkhi as its chief research officer and brought aboard former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Stanford cryptographer Dan Boneh and Diem co-creator Christian Catalini as advisers. 

Binance.US named Krishna Juvvadi as its new head of legal as it seeks to become the most compliant digital asset platform in the US. 

Juvvadi joins from Uber Technologies, where he was global head of operations compliance. He was the company’s first regulatory attorney and previously served as Uber’s chief regulatory counsel. 

“We recognize the importance of remaining responsive to and complying with the evolving rules and regulations governing the crypto ecosystem, and we continue to attract and invest in top legal and compliance talent to ensure this priority remains at the forefront of our operations,” Binance.US CEO Brian Shroder said in a statement.

3iQ, Canada’s largest digital asset investment fund manager, appointed Mark Connors as its head of research. 

The company, which manages about $2 billion in assets, launched Canada’s first bitcoin fund in April 2020.

Connors has more than three decades of investment management experience, most recently working as Credit Suisse’s global head of portfolio and risk advisory.

INX, which owns regulated digital securities and crypto trading platforms, hired Renata Szkoda as its new chief financial officer. 

Szkoda was previously a director of finance at crypto firm Galaxy Digital, which she joined in November 2020. She currently serves as chair of the Global Digital Asset and Cryptocurrency Association, which she co-founded. 

“Her deep financial experience and understanding of digital securities and capital markets make her the ideal strategic leader to help navigate being a public company on both the NEO exchange in Canada and in the US via our token,” INX CEO Shy Datika said in a statement.

Crypto compliance and risk management solutions provider TRM appointed Sujit Raman as general counsel.

Raman is a former associate deputy attorney general at the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and chair of the task force that authored the 2020 DOJ Cryptocurrency Enforcement Framework. He was most recently a partner at international law firm Sidley Austin LLP, where he advised clients on government investigations, as well as cyber and data protection.

BlockFi has added Brian Oliver to be its general manager of institutions as he will manage the company’s prime brokerage services, mining equipment-backed and crypto loans, and crypto and traditional asset management services. 

Oliver moves from Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation and has previously held senior roles at CME Group, JPMorgan, Citadel Securities and IHS Markit.

Amberdata named Ryan Burdick as its new senior vice president of global sales. 

Burdick most recently was responsible for global sales and partnerships at market data company Xignite. He has held sales and customer success leadership roles with S&P Global and Markit.

Institutional crypto trading tech provider Talos revealed four new hires about a week after the company’s $105 million 

BIGG Digital Assets, which owns Blockchain Intelligence Group, hired Kenneth Goodwin Jr. as its director of regulatory and institutional affairs.

Goodwin previously worked as the founder and general managing partner at capital markets advisory and digital asset management firm Jeanensis.

In case you missed it, Blockworks reported Thursday that Vanessa Grellet and Jordan Lazaro Gustave joined venture capitalist firm Aglaé Ventures to help its expansion into Web3 investments. 

Grellet was previously the head of portfolio growth at CoinFund, where she will remain in an advisory role. Gustave is a former chief operating officer at Aave.


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Research

With the recent election, it’s clear that there will be a meaningful shift in crypto regulations and legislation. Trump is likely as pro-crypto as a president can be. He launched (multiple) of his own NFT collections and is launching an Aave wrapper called World Liberty Fi. He has also spoken out and mentioned that he wants to make the United States "the crypto capital of the planet" and transform it into the "Bitcoin superpower of the world". He proposed creating a strategic national Bitcoin stockpile alongside support from Senator Cynthia Lummis, promising to retain 100% of all Bitcoin held by the U.S. government. More importantly, we’re likely to see deregulation across the board in a lot of industries, with crypto being one of them - as Trump has committed to keeping the crypto market largely unregulated. Crypto, DeFi in particular, has historically been knee-capped by overreaching and hostile governmental agencies and regulation by enforcement, as evidenced by the plethora of Wells notices and lawsuits over the past few years. With Donald Trump winning the presidency, Republicans taking control of the Senate, and being on the verge of securing the House, we think it’s likely that crypto realizes positive regulatory clarity. Below, you can find our analysts’ takes:

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