Bessie Liu

Though more crypto firms revealed layoffs this week, several segment players added high-level executives.&nbsp;



The Algorand Foundation named <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicatsaichin/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jessica Tsai Chin</a> as its new chief marketing officer.



The hire comes after Algorand <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/algorand-adds-ex-comms-head-at-visa-fidelity-as-cmo">brought aboard</a> Chief Marketing Officer Michele Quintaglie, a former communications executive at Fidelity Investments and Visa. A spokesperson told Blockworks that Quintaglie will continue in that role, while Chin leads on the foundation side. &nbsp;



Chin was most recently head of brand for global privacy at WhatsApp, where she also led the marketing team’s metaverse efforts.&nbsp;



Prior to joining WhatsApp, she worked in global brand marketing at Nike, where she developed mobile-first membership growth initiatives for platforms like SNKRS and the Nike Run app. She also spent about four years at Apple, leading global special projects for enterprise technology products.&nbsp;



Blockchain.com’s former chief compliance officer with an extensive traditional finance background has moved over to Kraken to work in the same role.



<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-rinaldi-877388/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CJ Rinaldi</a> joined Blockchain.com in October 2021, according to his LinkedIn. As its compliance leader, he helped the crypto platform build out global compliance frameworks.



Before that, Rinaldi was a head of markets compliance at Deutsche Bank Securities after heading up the investment bank’s anti-financial crimes compliance business. He also formerly worked at UBS, working as a transaction risk manager for currencies and commodities, among other roles.



<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/monicalong/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Monica Long</a> is now Ripple’s president after working at the company for roughly a decade.&nbsp;



She first joined Ripple in 2013 as its first marketing and communications hire, and was most recently a senior vice president and general manager of both RippleNet and RippleX.&nbsp;



RippleNet is a decentralized global network of banks and payment providers using Ripple&#8217;s distributed financial technology. RippleX is the open platform enabling developers and entrepreneurs to build payments into their application through the XRP Ledger.



Long said in a statement that Ripple is looking to delve deeper into crypto-enabled services like liquidity, settlement and custody.



The crypto unit of alternative investment manager Brevan Howard hired <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-hu-46a03343/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Kevin Hu</a> as a portfolio manager.&nbsp;



Hu joins from crypto investment firm Dragonfly where he was a general partner and head of liquid strategies. He also previously led liquid investments in Dragonfly’s venture funds.&nbsp;



Before focusing on digital assets, Hu was an investor at BlackRock’s alternatives investment group and also led the group’s research effort into digital assets in 2016.



Brevan Howard’s <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sources-brevan-howard-launches-first-digital-assets-fund-in-massive-crypto-push">Digital Multi-Strategy Fund started trading in January 2022</a>, sources told Blockworks at the time. The vehicle <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/brevan-howard-scores-largest-crypto-hedge-fund-launch-ever">raised more than $1 billion</a> from institutional investors but had been recently<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/brevan-howard-crypto-layoffs"> parting ways with underperforming portfolio managers</a>, sources said.&nbsp;



Crypto tax and accounting platform Ledgible hired <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/pauldiegelman/details/experience/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Paul Diegelman</a> as chief revenue officer and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/will~coleman/details/experience/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Will Coleman</a> as head of institutional product.&nbsp;



Diegelman was formerly head of business development and partnerships for data and connectivity at fintech firm Fiserv for nearly seven years.&nbsp;



Coleman was the principal architect of attest services to support cryptocurrency investment funds for Cohen &amp; Company, the largest auditor of cryptocurrency investment funds in the US.



Legible raised $20 million in June as part of a Series A round.&nbsp;



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Another week, another week of layoffs</h3>



Despite the slew of executive hires around the crypto space, layoffs continued.&nbsp;



Gemini is set to lay off another 10% of staff, The Information <a href="https://www.theinformation.com/articles/gemini-is-laying-off-10-of-staff-marking-latest-blow-for-winklevoss-crypto-startup" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a> Monday.&nbsp;



The news came the same week the founders of Gemini-owned NFT marketplace Nifty Gateway <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/nifty-gateways-founders-leaving-gemini">revealed their departure from Gemini</a>.



The company is also battling <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/pomerantz-law-firm-announces-the-filing-of-a-class-action-against-gemini-trust-company-llc-and-certain-officers-301729924.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">lawsuits</a> from customers of its lending platform, Gemini Earn, following the collapse of Genesis, which <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/genesis-in-chapter-11-wont-insulate-silbert-winklevoss-says">filed for bankruptcy</a> last week.&nbsp;



Gemini, founded by Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, said last June <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/gemini-joins-growing-list-of-crypto-exchanges-cutting-staff-amid-downturn">it was cutting 10% of its workforce</a> — citing the crypto downturn, as well as macroeconomic and geopolitical factors.



Crypto exchange Luno is set to cut 35% of its workforce, CEO Marcus Swanepoel <a href="https://discover.luno.com/luno-adjusts-size-of-team-to-navigate-the-current-crypto-winter/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a> Wednesday. The company co-founder cited the “incredibly tough year” for crypto and the broader tech industry, including “a series of shocks including Luna, Three Arrows and FTX.”



“Luno unfortunately hasn’t been immune to this turbulence, which has affected our overall growth and revenue numbers,” he said. &nbsp;



The company is owned by Digital Currency Group, which also owns struggling crypto lender Genesis and Grayscale Investments, manager of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC).&nbsp;



Read More: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/asset-managers-potential-gbtc-takeover">Asset Managers ‘Licking Their Chops’ Over Potential GBTC Takeover</a>



Billionaire Jihan Wu is cutting 10% of the staff at his crypto lending firm Matrix Asset Management, Bloomberg <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-27/billionaire-wu-s-matrix-asset-management-loses-top-executives">reported</a> Friday.



The company’s workforce was an estimated 300 people late last year.&nbsp;



Matrixport had <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-platform-matrixport-hires-big-name-coinbase-exec-to-build-us-business">hired a former Coinbase executive</a> to lead the cryptocurrency investment platform’s US business, sources told Blockworks in June.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



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Latest in Crypto Hiring: Former Nike, Apple Marketing Pro Joins Segment

Ben Strack

<div id="highlights-block_631b650fdc58f" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Ex-global head of macro electronic trading at Morgan Stanley joins crypto liquidity provider B2C2</li>
 <li>Former Revolut and Coinbase pro jumps to Algorand Foundation</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Blockchain-based payments solutions provider Tassat hired a handful of executives, some of which join from large traditional financial firms.&nbsp;



Andre Frank, who was appointed as managing director of the New York-based firm’s <a href="https://interbanknetwork.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Digital Interbank Network</a>, recently worked at the London Stock Exchange as an executive management consultant. He also previously worked as chief operating officer of Thesys Technologies, the big data and market structure technology subsidiary of Tradeworx.



Formerly Tassat’s director of product development, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/glendykam/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Glendy Kam</a> is now its chief product officer. Prior to Tassat, which is focused on b2b payments, she launched the API pilot program that supported JPMorgan’s blockchain initiative, <a href="https://www.jpmorgan.com/onyx/index">Onyx</a>.



<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-wolff-123a55/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Dan Wolff</a>, Tassat’s new managing director for customer success, spent 20 years at fintech broker-dealer Liquidnet. <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolhartman/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Carol Hartman</a>, previously the CEO of Hartman Group Consulting, was hired as a managing director of business development.



<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-rash/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jack Rash</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ned-thompson-mba-083b6210/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ned Thompson</a> are now also managing directors of business development at Tassat. Rash formerly was a national sales manager at Fiserv. Thompson, an ex-vice president of global treasury solutions at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, also previously worked at Fidelity Investments and Santander Bank.&nbsp;



<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-neill/details/experience/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Tim Neill</a> is now crypto infrastructure provider Copper’s new chief risk officer, a role he previously held at Mastercard.&nbsp;



The executive said in a statement that he seeks to help Copper “ensure institutional investors and asset managers can continue to transact and store cryptocurrencies transparently and securely.”



Neill joined Mastercard in 2018, according to his LinkedIn profile, working as chief risk officer for real-time payments and applications and head of risk for product management. He also previously held roles at London Stock Exchange Group, Standard Chartered Bank and Deutsche Bank.



Crypto trading platform Amber Group has cut as much as 10% of its workers so far this year as the bear market persists, Bloomberg reported Friday.  



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Another Morgan Stanley exec defects to crypto</h3>



The Algorand Foundation appointed <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/deirdre-h-192077129/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Deirdre Halligan</a> as its chief operating officer to help the Algorand blockchain pursue entry into new markets and work with regulators to spur its mass adoption.



Halligan joins the organization from financial app Revolut, where she led global affairs, as well as wealth and trading. Prior to that, she was a COO for Coinbase Ireland and worked in the same role at e-commerce technology company eDesk.



&#8220;I&#8217;ve always sought work with bleeding-edge technologists [and] disruptors, and Algorand is the blockchain with the requisite speed, security, and low carbon footprint to deliver financial innovation at a global scale,&#8221; Halligan said in a statement.



Liquidity provider B2C2 hired <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-restout-b944b621/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Thomas Restout</a> as its CEO of Europe, the Middle East and Africa as the company reports more traditional finance firms committing resources to understanding and building products around digital assets.&nbsp;



Restout joins B2C2 from Morgan Stanley, where he was most recently global head of macro electronic trading and led crypto trading for the Wall Street giant’s fixed income division.&nbsp;



Crypto exchange Binance reportedly hired Henrique Meirelles, a former president of the Central Bank of Brazil and Minister of the Economy, as an advisory board member.&nbsp;



The hire was <a href="https://oglobo.globo.com/blogs/lauro-jardim/post/2022/09/henrique-mereilles-de-volta-a-iniciativa-privada.ghtml" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a> by Brazilian newspaper O Globo. Meirelles was president of Brazil’s central bank from 2003 to 2011.



Hive Blockchain Technologies hired <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabrielibghy/?originalSubdomain=ca" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Gabriel Ibghy</a> as its general counsel after joining the company last year via acquisition as director of legal affairs.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



A practicing attorney and a member of the Quebec Bar, Ibghy has legal experience in corporate and commercial litigation before all levels of various Canadian courts.



He was more recently the CEO of GPU.ONE, a data center owner and operator that Hive bought last year.&nbsp;



The announcement came the same day Hive revealed it has started analyzing mining other coins with its feet of graphics processing units (GPUs) ahead of Ethereum’s <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/?s=merge" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">transition</a> from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake, and is implementing beta testing this week.&nbsp;



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Rockstar co-founder goes Web3</h3>



<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/lmercurio/details/experience/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Laura Mercurio</a> is set to become the CEO of <a href="https://blockchainaustralia.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Blockchain Australia</a> on Sept. 12. She seeks to help the organization grow its membership base and work with government and regulatory agencies to shape the future of blockchain technology.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Mercurio previously spent six years at BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, from 2006 to 2012, and has also worked at Citigroup, Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank.



Meanwhile, Australia-based cryptocurrency brokerage Caleb &amp; Brown has hired three executives to help it expand its services to include fund management.



<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/tommyrogulj/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Tommy Rogulj</a> will lead the design, implementation and management of a crypto asset portfolio for sophisticated investors, the firm said Wednesday. <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-c-30a75a14/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Daniel Caruso</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/gary-head-046307149/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Gary Head</a> will help strengthen the company’s industry footprint and manage risk while working with the team to develop an institutional-grade model for investment in crypto assets.



Rogulj was most recently a portfolio manager and senior investment analyst for investment firm Spaceship, and also formerly worked at State Street, Russell Investments and AtlasTrend.&nbsp;



Caruso, who steps into the role of director of financial risk, previously led equity and securities finance solutions at Société Générale, Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley. Head, Caleb &amp; Brown’s strategic committee chair, is a partner at MST Financial and was formerly a senior adviser at Gresham Partners.



Dan Houser, the co-founder of Rockstar Games and the creative director behind the Grand Theft Auto series, joined the advisory board of blockchain game company Revolving Games.



The Web3 startup raised $25 million in a funding round led by Houser, along with Pantera Capital, Animoca Brands, Polygon, Dapper Labs, Permanens Capital Partners, Kenetic Capital, Sarmayacar and DWeb3 Capital.&nbsp;



Founded in 2020, Revolving Games is developing a Battlestar Galactica game and has a cooperative adventure game — called Skyborne Legacy — set to be released in October.



Back in the finance world: digital asset management consultant Sabre56 added <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/antoine-farris-0694362/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Antoine Farris</a> as its new head of corporate development and ventures.&nbsp;



Farris joins Sabre56 from family office Golden Vision Capital, where he worked as a managing director focused on venture stage and growth equity investments in the healthcare, consumer and technology segments.&nbsp;



He began his career in the technology, media and telecom group at Bear Stearns &amp; Co. and later held senior investment banking roles at Lazard and Rothschild.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">In case you missed it</h3>



Digital bank ING’s former head of digital assets <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/herve-francois/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Hervé François</a> joined Investcorp to lead the alternative investment giant’s first blockchain-focused fund, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/former-ing-crypto-lead-to-helm-investcorps-first-blockchain-fund/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Blockworks reported Tuesday</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Based in Abu Dhabi, François is set to work with early-stage startups involved in segments such as decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and blockchain infrastructure.



<a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/mysten-labs-300m-fundraise-values-business-at-more-than-2b/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mysten Labs raised $300 million</a> as part of a Series B funding round that will help power more Web3 applications and speed up the adoption of its new blockchain.&nbsp;



The Web3 infrastructure company intends to hire dozens of professionals across engineering, marketing, partnerships, developer relations and product roles over the coming months, a spokesperson told Blockworks.



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Latest in Crypto Hiring: Morgan Stanley Exec Jumps Ship to Crypto

<div id="highlights-block_62c8564c6a8d9" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>A 21Shares executive jumps to competing crypto ETP issuer</li>
 <li>Algorand’s former chief marketing officer joins digital asset management firm</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Binance.US appointed <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasmine-lee-1b441014/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jasmine Lee</a> to be its chief financial officer. She joins from micro-investing app company Acorns, where she was chief financial officer and chief operating officer.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Before Acorns, she was CFO and COO for the consumer product group at PayPal. She held various leadership roles during her eight years at the company, which she helped grow through its strategic partnerships, pricing initiatives and acquiring new businesses.&nbsp;



“Jasmine is a rare talent who possesses more than 20 years of deep knowledge in both fintech and high growth startup environments,” <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/tag/binance-us/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Binance.US</a> CEO Brian Shroder said in a statement. “Her experience at PayPal, a public Fortune 500 company, in particular, will be invaluable as we chart our path to an [initial public offering] in the coming years.”



A Binance.US spokesperson declined to comment on any specific plans to go public.&nbsp;



<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ted-lin/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ted Lin</a>, who was chief growth officer at <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/tag/binance/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Binance</a> — the larger, global sister to Binance.US — left the crypto exchange after about five years at the company. He shared in LinkedIn and Twitter posts on July 1 that he wants to spend more time with his family, but noted that he looks to continue advancing the ecosystem through angel investing and mentorship.



“The past 5 years have been the busiest yet most intellectually rewarding years of my career,” Lin wrote. “The experience has been eye opening and humbling. Having bootstrapped multiple teams and initiatives on the rocket ship taught me many valuable lessons in business and in life.”&nbsp;



Before becoming Binance’s head of international markets in September 2017, Lin was a general manager of sales and marketing for Infortrend Technology, according to his LinkedIn profile.



A Binance spokesperson did not immediately comment on Lin’s replacement.



The Algorand Foundation added two executives this week, one of which spent more than 20 years at JPMorgan.&nbsp;



The organization, which helps run the Algorand blockchain’s monetary supply economics, decentralized governance, and open-source ecosystem, named <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-wragge/?originalSubdomain=uk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Eric Wragge</a> its global head of business development and capital markets. Additionally, it appointed <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnalanwoods/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">John Woods</a> as chief technology officer.&nbsp;



Wragge spent about two decades at JPMorgan, most recently working as a managing director in structured finance and head of asset-backed securities for Northern Europe. In addition to leading global initiatives and strategic partnerships in traditional capital markets and decentralized finance in his new role, Wragge will chair the Algorand Foundation’s investment committee.



As CTO, Woods is set to focus on removing friction from developers’ user experience and improving education for those users, as well as adding tools and resources for building applications on Algorand.



Meanwhile <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/keli-callaghan-b589303/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Keli Callaghan</a>, who most recently worked as Algorand’s chief marketing officer, has joined Arrington Capital as a partner.&nbsp;



The firm, which has more than $1 billion in assets under management, has invested in digital assets and Web3 since 2017. It was founded that year by TechCrunch and Crunchbase founder Michael Arrington and former TechCrunch CEO Heather Harde.



Callaghan is set to help grow the fund through increased brand awareness, community engagement and supporting the Web3 companies in Arrington’s portfolio.



Switzerland-based Crypto ETP issuer Valour hired <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/marco-infuso/?originalSubdomain=ch" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Marco Infuso</a> to lead the global sales of its ETPs as chief sales officer.



Infuso has worked in a range of asset management roles over the past two decades, including at DZ Bank, Pioneer Investments Lombard Odier and Commerzbank. He was most recently a managing director and head of Germany at <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/tag/21shares/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">21Shares</a>, the world’s largest crypto ETP issuer.



In addition to Infuso’s addition, the company announced that <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dianabiggs/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Diana Biggs</a> is stepping down from her role as chief strategy officer to pursue other opportunities. Biggs told Blockworks she will remain in the position until the end of October. She declined to comment on where she is headed.



Crypto exchange Gate.io named an executive vice president who has previously driven global brand operation and management at companies including Google and WeWork.



Tom Yang will focus on enhancing Gate.io&#8217;s market share in key and emerging markets around the world, increasing its brand presence and strengthening the exchange&#8217;s relationships with users and partners, he said in a statement.



Brazil-based fintech company and digital bank Neon hired <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/andr%C3%A9-madeira-04857910/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">André Madeira</a> as chief technology officer.&nbsp;



Madeira sold his artificial intelligence-powered fintech startup Meemo last year to Coinbase, where he recently oversaw consumer-facing data products. He has also built and led engineering and data efforts and teams for nearly a decade at Google and Snap, where he was a senior staff software engineer and director of engineering, respectively.&nbsp;



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">In case you missed it</h3>



As Blockworks previously reported, Jason Fung, TikTok’s former head of gaming, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/tiktoks-ex-head-of-gaming-starts-blockchain-company-meta0/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">started blockchain infrastructure company Meta0</a>, which aims to connect different metaverses.



Celsius Network <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/celsius-reorganizes-board-of-directors-amid-liquidity-issues/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">added finance executives</a> David Barse and Alan Jeffrey Carr as directors, according to a Wednesday filing. The crypto lender also recently terminated Gilbert Nathan, John Stephen Dubel and Laurence Anthony Tosi as directors.



Layoffs around the industry also persisted.



Compass Mining <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/compass-mining-searches-for-direction-after-top-execs-resign/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">is eliminating staff</a> after former CEO Whit Gibbs and CFO Jodie Fisher resigned. The firm’s recently appointed interim CEOs Thomas Heller and Paul Gosker said the size of the team would be reduced by 15%, admitting that Compass Mining “grew too quickly.”



Peng Zhong, CEO of Cosmos blockchain developer Ignite, <a href="https://twitter.com/zcpeng/status/1542891986188902404" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a> last Friday that he had formally left the firm. <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/cosmos-developer-ignite-sees-mass-exodus-and-layoffs-as-ceo-exits/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The company’s headcount</a> has been reduced by over 50%, <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/07/01/cosmos-builder-ignite-cuts-headcount-by-more-than-50-ex-employees-say/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CoinDesk</a> reported.



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Latest in Crypto Hiring: Binance.US Hires CFO To Help It Chart IPO Path

<div id="highlights-block_620512574a983" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>New CEO has spent much of career focused on capital market development and financial inclusion, particularly within developing countries</li>
 <li>Warden is focused on bolstering Algorand’s marketing efforts and building up its ecosystem in 2022</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Staci Warden has worked in the public sector, the private sector and at a non-profit organization. Now she is joining the Algorand Foundation as its CEO.



By leveraging the Algorand protocol and open-source software, the Algorand Foundation seeks to create an open, public and permissionless blockchain.



Warden joined the Algorand Foundation board in September. She will replace Sean Lee, who spent the last 18 months as CEO and is exploring career opportunities outside the organization.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Getting into crypto&nbsp;</h3>



Warden first dabbled in crypto during her time at the Milken Institute, where she ran the organization’s global market development practice.&nbsp;



She was tasked with being a resource for financial education to the press while working at the non-profit, and in 2013, people became curious about bitcoin.&nbsp;



Warden made it her mission to better understand the digital asset and the technology behind it, she told Blockworks, listening to industry pioneers such as Gavin Andresen and Brock Pierce in her spare time.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">“I thought it was really the most amazing thing that I had ever come across,” she said.</blockquote>



“The idea of the proof-of-work behind bitcoin and the idea that in a trustless environment you could have a well-functioning monetary supply dynamic, I thought was really incredible.”



She would later discover Ethereum and the idea of programmable money with no intermediaries.



“For me, I think it hit particularly hard because I had such a deep experience in developing countries and emerging markets where financial intermediaries don’t function very well and where they can be really rent-seeking to people that are just trying to save money, invest it properly and make their lives better,” Warden explained.



Through a range of roles throughout her career, Warden has focused on capital market development and financial inclusion, particularly within developing countries.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Before working at the Milken Institute from 2013 to 2021, she was an executive director at JPMorgan for eight years. There, she led the company’s public sector division in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, focused on improving capital markets in emerging markets.



Prior to JPMorgan, she worked at the US Treasury Department as an international economist and then at Nasdaq, where she led its two markets for micro-cap companies.



After learning about crypto while at the Milken Institute, Warden wrote about crypto and blockchain for the organization’s publication.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">“Fundamentally, it is potentially the answer for financial inclusion, and that’s very important for me,” she said of the industry.</blockquote>



“When you’re at a think tank…you’re not exactly playing the game; you’re more observing and more trying to shape the game, and I guess I decided I wanted to be on the field.”



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Outlook for Algorand</h3>



With an estimated 1.7 billion people globally that do not have access to finance, Warden argued the Algorand protocol is best equipped, with its speed, security and decentralization, to address that problem at scale.



&#8220;Staci understands the potential for Algorand to become a dominant layer-1 blockchain, and she has the experience and expertise to drive our global efforts to scale and to deliver outstanding value to our community,” Algorand Foundation Board Chairman ​​Kieron Guilfoyle said in a statement. “I know she will waste no time in shifting the Algorand Foundation into its expansion phase.”



Warden noted that transaction fees are 0.001 ALGO and the blockchain processes at 1,000 transactions per second.&nbsp;



The current market capitalization of Algorand’s native currency ALGO is nearly $7 billion, according to CoinGecko, making it the 25th largest, ahead of Bitcoin Cash (BCH).



Competing blockchain Solana is processing more than 2,000 transactions per second at a cost of $0.00025 per transaction, according to the blockchain’s website.



Algorand and Solana have become a few of the range of <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/competition-in-layer-1-space-continues-to-heat-up/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">layer-1 alternatives</a> to Ethereum, which has speeds closer to 15 transactions per second and higher costs. An upgrade to the network, expected in a few months, includes a shift from the proof-of-work consensus mechanism to proof-of-stake, and a further upgrade later this year is planned to scale its capacity to 100,000 transactions per second through a method called sharding.



“I think I have the best product, and the product is not well understood and not well appreciated and not well known,” Warden said.



She intends for the Algorand foundation to put more resources into marketing and communications by quadrupling the size of its community engagement team and expanding its developer relations unit.&nbsp;&nbsp;



In addition, building up the Algorand ecosystem as the growth of crypto payment platforms, DeFi and NFTs accelerates will be crucial, Warden said. This includes ensuring Algorand is in wallets, offered by custody providers and a part of bridges and oracles.



“We absolutely need to focus on that and draw liquidity and draw the best developers and draw the smartest entrepreneurs to the Algorand ecosystem and our layer-1 so that we can help them build up this ecosystem,” she added. “In the longer-term, it’s going to be a real-world play, making sure that we are the layer-1 that wallets use for real-world payments.”



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