Silvergate loses C-suite, PayPal gains new CEO amid stablecoin effort

Grayscale is also looking to bolster its ETF team

article-image

docstockmedia/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

The wind down of ill-fated, once-crypto friendly Silvergate Bank continued this week. 

CEO Alan Lane and chief legal officer John Bonino left their positions effective Aug. 15, and the chief financial officer, Antonio Martino, will depart by Sept. 30. 

All three men will receive severance packages, according to a US Security and Exchange Commission filing on Tuesday.

Kathleen Fraher, who has been the chief risk officer at Silvergate for over 17 years, will lead the bank through its liquidation process in Lane’s stead as chief transition officer. 

Silvergate had a reputation for being a bank that serviced crypto clients as far back as 2013, however problems began to emerge by early 2023. 

The bank lost $1 billion in the fourth quarter of 2022, in part due to it being forced to sell assets off at a major loss in order to redeem around $8 billion in customer withdrawals. 

As this situation spiraled, Silvergate cut 200 positions in January 2023, amounting to 40% of its workforce. 

In March, it all became too much to bear. Silvergate announced its intent to liquidate the bank just days after shuttering its exchange network, SEN.

By May, there were approximately 80 employees remaining at Silvergate to help with the liquidation, a fraction of the 400 people that worked there as of 2022, according to Pitchbook 

PayPal gets a new chief executive

Alex Chriss will become PayPal’s new president and CEO on Sept. 27, 2023, the company announced on Monday.

Chriss’s hiring puts him in a unique position, where he’ll ultimately helm PayPal’s rollout of its dollar backed stablecoin.

PYUSD, PayPal’s stablecoin, is built on Ethereum and is entering a competitive field, with giants like Tether and Circle being the top dogs as of now. 

Chriss hasn’t been vocal on crypto as of yet, so there simply isn’t much to go on in terms of his views. Blockworks reached out to PayPal. 

Intuit, the fintech giant behind brands like TurboTax, Credit Karma and Mailchimp, had previously been Chriss’s home for nearly two decades. He’s served in a variety of roles there and is departing as an executive vice president and general manager of Intuit’s small business and self-employed group.

Chriss will replace Dan Schulman, who’s held the top job at PayPal since 2014. 

Other notable hires

  • Grayscale is hiring a Senior Associate for its ETF team, at a time when the race to a spot bitcoin ETF is heating up.
  • In a reposted listing on LinkedIn, Coinbase is searching for a “Market Regulation Investigator” who’ll be investigating trade violations on its derivatives exchange in a bid to comply with CFTC regulations.
  • Thomas Übermeier is joining IOHK, the company behind Cardano, as head of software engineering on the team building data protection blockchain Midnight.

Don’t miss the next big story – join our free daily newsletter.

Tags

Upcoming Events

MON - WED, MARCH 18 - 20, 2024

Digital Asset Summit (DAS) is returning March 2024. What you can expect: And more! Don’t miss out on the opportunity to be in the room when the future of crypto is decided. Join us and help shape the future of our […]

recent research

Research report - cover graphics-2.jpg

Research

Base has doubled-down on its commitment to the Superchain vision, has shown early signs of success with nearly $400M in TVL, and has become home to novel dapps such as friend.tech which has seen significant traction.

article-image

The bitcoin halving slated for April 2024 — an event expected to spur upward price action for BTC — could be a boon for Block’s stock price, analysts say

article-image

Seed Club founder Jess Sloss is excited to “open the doors and let other people see what we’ve been seeing for the last few months”

article-image

Blockchain is a “natural fit” in games based on open economies and user-generated content, says Wyatt

article-image

Their current stance is a half-baked attempt that could stifle innovation and burden an emerging industry

article-image

Maker’s DeFi-focused “subDAO” passed a proposal activating a lending market for DAI on the Gnosis Chain

article-image

Certain creditors could be repaid sooner, with one hedge fund exec telling Blockworks it expects a payout by the end of the year