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

article-image

Blockworks exclusive art by axel rangel

share

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.


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 On the Margin newsletter.

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

Salt Lake City, UT

MON - TUES, OCT. 7 - 8, 2024

Blockworks and Bankless in collaboration with buidlbox are excited to announce the second installment of the Permissionless Hackathon – taking place October 7-8 in Salt Lake City, Utah. We’ve partnered with buidlbox to bring together the brightest minds in crypto for […]

Salt Lake City, UT

WED - FRI, OCTOBER 9 - 11, 2024

Permissionless is a conference for founders, application developers, and users. Come meet the next generation of people building and using crypto.

recent research

Research Report Templates (1).png

Research

Solana Mobile is a highly ambitious foray into the mobile consumer hardware market, seeking to open up a crypto-native distribution channel for mobile-first applications. The market for Solana Mobile devices has demonstrated a phenomenon whereby external market actors (e.g. Solana-native projects) continuously underwrite subsidies to Mobile consumers. The value of these subsidies, coming in the form of airdrops, trial programs, and exclusive NFT mints, have consistently covered the cost of the phone and generated positive returns for consumers. Given this trend in subsidies, the unit economics in the market for Mobile devices, and the initial growth rate and trajectory of sales, it should be expected that Solana mobile can clear 1M to 10M units over the coming years. As more devices circulate amongst users, Solana Mobile presents a promising venue for the emergence of killer-applications uniquely enabled by this mobile-first, crypto-native distribution channel.

article-image

Plus, breaking down Donald Trump’s shifting crypto stance

article-image

Markets are holding relatively steady despite the supply shock

article-image

Analysts are looking ahead to August, a historically volatile month made more interesting this year by the US presidential election

article-image

Plus, a look into Lighting Labs’ newest feature

article-image

Crypto’s Wild West era is over — it’s time to embrace regulation to secure the future of digital assets

article-image

Plus, Solana has now surpassed Ethereum in trailing 30-day decentralized exchange volume