Latest in Crypto Hiring: Jefferies Execs Leave to Create Startup

Anthony Mazzarese and Brandon Mulvihill have left financial services company Jefferies to co-found a startup aiming to serve institutional clients in the crypto space. 

Mazzarese was Jefferies’ global head of FX prime brokerage distribution, while Mulvihill served as its global head of FX prime brokerage. The two will now focus on bridging the gap between traditional financial services and digital assets through industrial-grade technology, trade flow expertise and attractive commercial terms, Mazzarese told Blockworks.

The former Jefferies executives are building a team and securing funding, he added. Additional details about the startup are set to come in the next few weeks.

Digital asset platform Amber Group appointed Ehsan Haque as its general counsel for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

Haque joins Amber Group from his latest role as global head of legal and compliance for private equity firm Hamilton Capital Holdings. He has also recently worked as general counsel for investment technology platform AlphaSwap and Lending Block, an online digital asset lending and borrowing platform. 

Earlier in his career, Haque was legal counsel for Deutsche Bank. He later joined Royal Bank of Scotland and was head of equities for Nomura’s EMEA legal department.

The hire follows Amber Group’s latest $200 million raise last month led by Singaporean state holding company Temasek, giving the company a valuation of roughly $3 billion.

Web3 digital identity platform Unstoppable Domains hired Sajjad Rehman as its head of Europe and Nilkanth Iyer as its head of Asia.

Launched in 2018, Unstoppable Domains allows anyone to purchase a domain name that is minted as an NFT on the blockchain. It has more than 2 million registered NFT domains.

Rehman joins from Amazon-owned video livestreaming service Twitch, where he was vice president of business development for the EMEA region. Iyer previously held roles at software intelligence company CAST and tech goliath IBM.

The two executives will seek to help Unstoppable Domains onboard millions of new users to Web3 by partnering with wallets, exchanges and other industry players in Europe and Asia.

Mudit Gupta recently announced on Twitter that he would be joining Polygon as its chief information security officer.

Gupta also serves as an advisor at SushiSwap and a technical partner at Delta Blockchain Fund, according to his LinkedIn profile. He had worked for nearly three years as a senior solidity developer and then lead blockchain engineer for software development company Polymath.

“Polygon is the leading Ethereum scaling platform, and I’m stoked about our upcoming ZK rollups,” Gupta said in a Monday tweet. “Security has been a priority at Polygon, and I will be pushing it to the next level.”

Decentralized financial market infrastructure company Bosonic hired Paddy Boyle as its global head of clearing and derivatives. Founded in 2016, the firm offers infrastructure aiming to eliminate counterparty credit and settlement risk in digital asset markets. 

Boyle was previously a partner at Goldman Sachs, where he spent 16 years as the investment bank’s global head of foreign exchange options. More recently, he was a managing director and global head of ForexClear at London-based clearing house LCH.

Former Treasurer of the United States Rosie Rios joined the board of directors of Unicorn Hunters, a platform that connects companies looking for expansion capital to achieve a billion-dollar valuation.

Rios’ experience will be key to Unicorn Hunters achieving its strategic objectives, which include making Unicoin the top equity-backed cryptocurrency in the world, the company announced Wednesday.

Unicoin, which launched last month, pays dividends and is backed by equity in emerging high-growth companies. 

The RLY Network Association hired Jeremiah Owyang as its chief marketing officer.

The non-profit supports the infrastructure and development of the RLY Network, which powers projects including Rally.io, Unite.io and SuperLayer.io.

Owyang is an advisor and angel investor in several early-stage startups, including blockchain gaming giant Animoca Brands. He also founded Catalyst Companies, a council for corporations that are seeking to innovate with new technologies.

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