Latest in Hiring: Ex-Bank of England Exec Jumps Into Crypto

Crypto technology provider Fireblocks hired a former Bank of England executive as its new CBDC and market infrastructure director.

Varun Paul, who will serve on Fireblocks’ corporate strategy team, was at the Bank of England for 14 years and ultimately led its fintech hub and future of finance initiatives.

“From CBDC [central bank digital currency] developments to the tokenization of traditional financial assets, bridging digital assets and blockchain technologies to traditional institutions at scale will require strong working relationships with the central bank community,” Fireblocks Head of Corporate Strategy Adam Levine said in a statement. 

Derivatives exchange Bitget appointed Gracy Chen as a managing director. She previously held executive roles at XRSPACE, a virtual reality technology company headquartered in Taipei.  

Bitget reported its all-time high derivatives trading volume of $8.7 billion earlier this year — a 300% increase from the year before.

Chen noted in a statement that she is an “avid investor” in crypto and seeks to help Bitget connect centralized and decentralized finance, “resulting in an expansive bridge to the vast web of crypto.”

Digital Entertainment Asset (DEA), a blockchain gaming and entertainment company based in Singapore, named Tatsuya Kohrogi as its head of global business.

Known for its gaming and decentralized finance (GameFi) platform PlayMining, which allows players to mine crypto while they play games, DEA has 2.4 million players worldwide. The company was founded in 2018 and is developing play-to-earn game JobTribes and an NFT marketplace.

Kohrogi served as a partner manager at Meta (formerly Facebook), where he worked with ad agencies in Japan. Prior to Meta, he was at SoftBank, where he held investment strategy, business development, sales management and digital marketing roles during his seven years at the company.

“As we begin to expand our business across Asia, Europe and North America, we are confident each region will grow under Tatsuya’s leadership,” DEA CEO Naohito Yoshida said in a statement.

In case you missed it, Fidelity Investments’ digital asset arm said it is seeking to double its headcount by the end of the year as it pushes to expand its support for assets other than bitcoin. The expansion would include hiring about 210 workers across client services, custody operations, execution services and technology building roles, a spokesperson told Blockworks earlier this week.  

Others are slowing down hiring amid the crypto market downturn. 

Coinbase Chief People Officer L.J. Brock wrote in a company post that the exchange has decided to take more “stringent measures” to slow its headcount growth in hopes of navigating uncertain waters.

Gemini founders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss said in a Tuesday memo to employees that the company expects to cut 10% of its staff due to the ongoing crypto downturn, as well as macroeconomic and geopolitical factors.

---

Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

• Blockworks Daily: The newsletter that helps thousands of investors understand crypto and the markets, by Byron Gilliam.
• Empire: Start your morning with the top news and analysis to inform your day in crypto.
• Forward Guidance: Reporting and analysis on the growing intersection of crypto and macroeconomics, policy and finance.
• 0xResearch: Alpha directly in your inbox. Market highlights, data, degen trade ideas, governance updates, token performance and more.
• Lightspeed: Built for Solana investors, developers and community members. The latest from one of crypto’s hottest networks.
• The Drop: For crypto collectors and traders, covering apps, games, memes and more.
• Supply Shock: Tracking Bitcoin’s rise from internet plaything worth less than a penny to global phenomenon disrupting money as we know it.