Crypto Hiring: Custodian Copper Adds Slate of Leaders

Company focused on risk management for crypto firms and other financial institutions cuts 9% of its staff

article-image

TierneyMJ/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

Crypto custodian Copper revealed a slate of new leaders Wednesday. The company announced a new chief technology officer, chief financial officer and general counsel. 

Stefano Maestri is the company’s new CTO, while Sam Goh and Sam Brown now work as its CFO and general counsel, respectively. 

Maestri was previously in the same role at both analytics company Clarivate, and the financial services division of information services provider IHGS Markit. 

Goh joins Copper from digital identity company Onfido, where he was a senior vice president. 

Brown, who had been Copper’s acting general counsel since February, now steps into the role permanently. Brown joined the company last June as its head of product following stints at Coinbase, Morgan Stanley and Barclays Investment Bank.

Copper previously brought aboard five former Bank of America Merrill Lynch employees to work on expanding its prime infrastructure offering.

TRM Labs lays off staff

TRM Labs, a firm focused on risk management and compliance for crypto businesses, laid off 9% of its workforce this week.

The company has roughly 200 employees, according to Pitchbook data.

A company spokesperson confirmed the layoffs to Blockworks Tuesday, adding that TRM Labs “made the difficult decision to adjust our resources to best align with the macroeconomic environment and future business goals.”

About a third of the TRM Labs employees laid off were on the company’s recruiting team. Remaining roles were cut from areas where “we’ve sharpened our focus,” according to the representative.

“Our recruiting team is still well-equipped to make the strategic hires planned for this year on engineering, data science and go-to-market teams that are critical to our continued growth,” the spokesperson added.

The workforce reduction comes as staff cuts at sector firms — such as Anchorage Digital and Magic Eden — have continued in recent months after crypto layoffs spiked in January

Other notable hires

  • Gemini appointed Pravjit Tiwana as its CEO for the Asia-Pacific region as part of the US company’s latest offshore expansion plans.  
  • Blockchain solution Avail, which was recently spun out of the Polygon ecosystem, has made former Polygon Labs technical lead Prabal Banerjee a co-founder. 
  • DigitalBits Managing Director Daniele Mensi is being promoted to CEO after joining the blockchain project in September 2021.
  • Kevin Jin, an ex-software engineer for Compound Labs and Robinhood, became the first chief technology officer for Web3 marketing platform Kalder
  • Brendan Humpries, who previously worked as director of business oversight, risk and controls at RBC Global Asset Management joined NFT-focused Pine Protocol as its head of business. 

Phil Robl was named chief operating officer of the newly formed community management and social media division of web3-focused PR agency Jukebox.


Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter.

Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 18 - 20, 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.

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.

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.

recent research

Flashnote Template (6).png

Research

Trading of the President's TRUMP memecoin sent the market capitalization to over $15B, resulting in all-time highs for Solana’s Real Economic Value, DEX volumes, and stablecoin supply. This event further validates Solana as the venue for high-throughput onchain activity, with Solana DEXs and DeFi applications as primary beneficiaries, while also signaling to further experimentation, utilization, and adoption of memecoins as legitimate financial instruments for speculation, crowdfunding, or capital formation. President Trump’s continued willingness to experiment in crypto reaffirms a highly-favorable political and regulatory climate for the industry.

article-image

Back in 2021, there were really only two memecoins and both hit enormous peaks along with BTC

article-image

Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron thinks that yield-bearing stablecoins could be the next big narrative

article-image

A Nova Labs exec referred to the last-day lawsuit “as irresponsible as it is wrong-headed”

article-image

Corresponding resolutions were introduced to “roll back the disastrous” rule requiring custodial brokers to report transactions

article-image

Donald Trump has slightly backed off from the ambitious tariff goals he touted on the campaign trail

article-image

Some have called it “a relief” that the task force will be led by the crypto-friendly Hester Peirce