Crypto Hiring: Hut 8 exec set to take over Celsius mining company

Elsewhere, Bitget sees a rise in ex-banking applicants and Kraken adds leadership to navigate regulation

share

It was a heavier hiring week in crypto as an expected January bump in new jobs came to fruition. 

Notably, Hut 8 announced Chief Commercial Officer Matt Prusak will be leaving his post Jan. 31 to take over the mining company being spun out of the Celsius bankruptcy. 

The move was previously disclosed in regulatory filings related to the bankruptcy.

A bankruptcy court in the Southern District of New York approved an unconventional plan to transform Celsius into a bitcoin mining company late last year. Celsius is expected to emerge from bankruptcy in early 2024. 

Read more: SEC sues Celsius, former CEO for market manipulation, securities fraud

In a press release, Hut 8 said the company would provide “end-to-end managed services” for five Celsius-owned mining sites in Texas, with Prusak serving as CEO. The four-year agreement pledges Hut 8 a $20 million annual management fee “in addition to restricted stock and incentive equity in the new company.”

Prusak was previously the CCO of US Bitcoin Corp, which underwent a “merger of equals” with Hut 8 in November. 

Read more: New-look Hut 8 eyes AI-related opportunities after merger

Celsius plowed hundreds of millions of dollars into mining rigs before going belly-up. The Texas sites will have 12 exahashes per second (EH/s) of mining capacity, according to the press release. 

With a current global hashrate of 540 EH/s, according to a tracker on CoinWarz, Celsius’ new mining company could account for roughly 2% of global bitcoin mining power. 

One in three Bitget applicants come from banking: Report

Crypto may be banking the unbanked, but it’s also making bank for ex-bankers. 

Bitget released a report combing through applications for roles at the centralized crypto exchange that showed 33% of Bitget applicants came from the banking sector — up from 15% in 2022 and 10% in 2021. Ex-banking applicants most often sought jobs in know-your-customer (KYC) and compliance.

A survey of the ex-banker applicants found they were most interested in better pay as well as crypto’s innovativeness. 

Bitget’s report cautions that crypto’s creep into the traditional finance world could cause the trend to happen in reverse, too. 

“[W]ith successful transitions of banking and financial institutions into Web3, there’s a possibility of some attrition of professionals from leading crypto companies,” the report said. 

Other notable hiring news

  • Kraken tapped Gilles BianRosa as chief operating and product officer and Marcus Hughes as global head of regulatory strategy. CEO David Ripley said the hires would help Kraken grow while “ensuring compliance with applicable regulatory requirements across the many markets we operate in.”
  • Anthony Leutenegger became CEO of DAO platform Aragon X
  • Ben Edgington said he’d be leaving his role as principal product manager at Web3 development firm Consensys. 
  • Former Gitcoin head of impact Azeem Khan became chief operating officer at the layer-2 Morph. 
  • George Beall joined the business development team at Gauntlet.
  • Katya Ternopolska became strategy lead at the Wormhole Foundation.
  • R3 Digital Markets brought on Kate Karimson as its chief commercial officer. 
  • Web3 security firm Blockaid hired Glenn Rachlin to lead its go-to-market efforts.

Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

🚀 Build What’s Next — Permissionless IV Hackathon Join us June 22–23 in Brooklyn for the Permissionless IV Hackathon — a 36-hour sprint hosted by Cracked Labs and Blockworks where top builders turn ideas into real products. Come to launch, not just […]

recent research

Research Report Templates (10).png

Research

Kamino has evolved into a full-stack asset scaling suite with V2: unlocking new markets, improving capital efficiency, and catering to various risk profiles. We believe it is best positioned to become the credit backbone of Solana as the ecosystem matures. Simply put, KMNO remains our highest-conviction bet in the Solana ecosystem. This report lays out our thesis.

article-image

Greenwood was a success story before it was a tragedy

article-image

All eight included staking in their most recent SEC filings

article-image

With an updated Summary of Economic Projections, the Fed sees growth slowing and inflation increasing

article-image

Where do crypto mobile games go from here?

article-image

Bybit’s Byreal, Binance Alpha and Coinbase’s DEX integrations

article-image

This isn’t the worst hack to ever hit Mt. Gox, but it could be the most entertaining