Crypto Hiring: BlockFi’s Zac Prince heads for the crypto exit

Elsewhere, Anchorage Digital hires a former SEC lawyer and a GSR researcher becomes an ETF strategist at BlackRock

March 16, 2024 12:00 pm

Former BlockFi CEO Zac Prince | DAS 2022 New York by Blockworks

It had been a year and a half since Zac Prince’s last X post, a retweet announcing that lending platform BlockFi would pause operations amid the fallout from FTX’s collapse.

Then, this past Monday, Prince returned to say he’d be leaving crypto altogether.

Prince is taking over as CEO of RE Cost Seg, a firm that offers potentially tax-saving cost segregation studies to real estate investors. It’s the first time Prince has worked in a real estate-focused firm, as he worked in lending in the years before he founded BlockFi, according to his LinkedIn.

Newsletter

Subscribe to The Breakdown

In general, executives skewered by FTX’s fall haven’t flooded for the exits. Brett Harrison, the onetime president of FTX.US, launched a new derivatives brokerage named Architect. And Blockworks previously reported on Backpack, a former FTX employee-led startup that’s created a popular wallet for Solana users.

Prince, whose firm entered bankruptcy due to FTX exposure, testified at Sam Bankman-Fried’s trial in November. Prosecutors questioned Prince on his decision to lend funds to Alameda Research, FTX’s sister firm.

Anchorage Digital makes SEC vet its general counsel

The crypto platform Anchorage Digital named TuongVy Le its general counsel.

Le most recently worked in regulatory and legal roles at Bain Capital Crypto and Worldcoin. She was also a partner at Bain Capital Crypto. Before that, Le spent years at the Securities and Exchange Commission where she handled some of the agency’s earliest crypto investigations, according to an Anchorage Digital blog post.

“We are making a big bet on the future, but progress always prevails. Onward!” Le wrote to cap off an X thread announcing the new role.

Other notable hiring news

The head of digital assets at Steve Cohen’s Point72 left the hedge fund, Bloomberg reported.
Former GSR researcher Matt Kunke left the firm to become BlackRock’s digital asset ETFs product strategist.
NFT fantasy sports startup Sorare laid off 22 employees from its New York office in February, TechCrunch reported.

Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

The Breakdown: Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily.
0xResearch: Alpha in your inbox. Think like an analyst.

Tags

Newsletter

The Breakdown

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Digital Asset Summit 2026

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 24 - 26, 2026

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.

buy tickets learn more

recent research

Research

Kinetiq Protocol: From LST Infrastructure to HIP-3 Deployer

Kinetiq has established itself as Hyperliquid's dominant liquid staking protocol, holding 82.5% of LST market share with $610M in TVL. The protocol is now expanding beyond its kHYPE staking core into higher take-rate verticals: iHYPE for institutional custody rails, Launch for HIP-3 capital formation, and Markets for builder-deployed perpetuals. We view Markets, launching Jan. 12, as the highest-potential product line given its mechanically scalable, activity-linked unit economics. Near-term revenue remains anchored by kHYPE's KIP-2 fee schedule (~$1.6M annualized), while Markets provides embedded optionality if HIP-3 economics normalize post-Growth Mode. KNTQ's setup is relatively clean: zero insider unlocks until November 2026, 6.2% buyback yield from staking revenue, and cleared airdrop overhang. Risks center on unproven Markets execution, declining kHYPE TVL despite ongoing incentives, and competition from Hyperliquid's native initiatives.

by Shaunda Devens