Ben Strack

Alluvial revealed a swathe of leadership changes, including the appointment of a new CEO.&nbsp;



<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mara-schmiedt-506862124/?locale=en_US">Mara Schmiedt</a>, formerly the software company’s chief growth officer, is now the firm’s chief executive. Before joining Alluvial last October, Schmiedt was head of sales at Coinbase Cloud for nearly two years. She worked as a strategy manager at blockchain company ConsenSys shortly prior to that.



Alluvial also named co-founder <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-leisinger/">Matt Leisinger</a>, its former CEO, as chief product officer. Before becoming Alluvial’s CEO last year, Leisinger was a product lead at blockchain infrastructure provider Figment.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



The reshuffling comes at a time when Alluvial seeks to offer more support to liquid staking protocol Liquid Collective. The protocol’s Ethereum <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/staking">staking</a> went live on Coinbase Prime and Bitcoin Suisse earlier this month.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Bitcoin miner also names new chief executive&nbsp;</h2>



<a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/bitcoin-mining" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Crypto miner</a> Bit Digital also named a new CEO in a move to go into effect on March 31. 



CEO <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/bullett/">Bryan Bullett</a> is set to step down from the chief executive post, becoming a senior adviser. Bit Digital Chief Strategy Officer Sam Tabar will fill the role.



Bullett will focus on finding additional, non-correlated income streams for the company in his new role, the company said in a press release. The New York-based company revealed last year its intention to become a validator on the <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/ethereum" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ethereum</a> network, as well as to compile and stake ether (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/eth" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ETH</a>).



“What already differentiates us is our pristine balance sheet, unleveraged and sound mining business, and exciting new Ethereum business that positions us to become a proxy for the foundational blockchain of the &#8216;smart contract economy,” Tabar said in a statement.



Bit Digital had roughly $33 million in cash and nearly $28 million worth of digital assets at the end of 2022 — including no debt or miner purchase obligations.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Other notable hires</h2>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Alchemy Pay, a payment company that connects the fiat and crypto economies, tapped former White House senior adviser <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-plouffe-00662396/">David Plouffe</a> as a senior adviser.&nbsp;</li>



<li>Crypto mining hardware company BitFrontier Capital Holdings hired Keith Su — formerly at ASIC Miners US — to lead its business operations in Asia.&nbsp;</li>



<li>Blockchain DigitalBits appointed Riccardo Cambiassi as its chief technology officer. Cambiassi was previously a technology consultant for firms such as GoCardless and Yodel.&nbsp;</li>



<li>Cipher Mining promoted <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-kelly-060593169/">Patrick Kelly</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/williwaschuk/">Will Iwaschuk</a> to be co-presidents, while elevating <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/olivia-s-01ab7a74/">Olivia Stennett</a> to be the company’s chief administrative officer.</li>
</ul>



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Latest in Crypto Hiring: New CEOs for Bit Digital, Alluvial

<div id="highlights-block_6283a172153fa" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Alluvial’s founding team includes former executives at Figment, Kiln and Index Cooperative</li>
 <li>New protocol will require contributors to enable embedded KYC and AML checks</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Crypto exchange Coinbase’s cloud division is working with Figment to support the founders and operators building what it calls the first enterprise-grade liquid staking protocol.&nbsp;



The news was revealed Tuesday during Blockworks’ <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/events/permissionless/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Permissionless event</a> in West Palm Beach. Software development firm Alluvial is building the new protocol, which the company ultimately intends to be governed by a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO).&nbsp;



Liquid staking on Ethereum has grown from less than 1% market share in January 2021 to more than 30%, according to <a href="https://dune.com/hildobby/ETH2-Deposits" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Dune Analytics data</a>.&nbsp;



“There has been growing demand amongst institutions and enterprises that want to access liquid staking but haven’t had a solution that meets compliance and security standards,” Coinbase Cloud Senior Manager Mara Schmiedt told Blockworks. “With Alluvial, we are enabling that access and are focused on unlocking the next wave of adoption and financial innovation in the space.&#8221;



Coinbase acquired blockchain infrastructure platform Bison Trails in January 2021 to become the foundational team and platform of <a href="https://www.coinbase.com/cloud" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Coinbase Cloud</a>. The business offers Web3 application programming interfaces (APIs), services, and infrastructure for software builders.



<a href="https://www.figment.io/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Figment</a> is focused on offering staking and application layer solutions for token holders and developers building on Web3 technology. The firm <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/figment-closes-funding-round-at-1-4b-valuation/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">raised $110 million</a> in a Series C round in December, bringing its post-money valuation to $1.4 billion.



Alluvial is led by Matt Leisinger, former head of liquid staking products at Figment; Nicolas Maurice, the former chief technology officer of staking-as-a-service platform Kiln; and Mike Taormina, former head of institutional business at the Index Cooperative.



Liquidity is key to unlock the next chapter of financial innovation in Web3, the companies said.



The non-custodial protocol will allow users to stake their tokens and receive receipt tokens that prove ownership of the staked tokens. They can then use those receipt tokens to participate in the broader Web3 economy.&nbsp;&nbsp;



It will require all contributors to enable embedded know your customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) checks.



Coinbase Cloud and Figment plan to perform staking services on the network and run validators with clients across regions and cloud providers. Other security-focused validator operators will be added to the protocol over time.



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



Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire">Subscribe to the Empire newsletter</a>.



Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/onthemargin">Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter</a>.



Get alpha directly in your inbox with the <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/research">0xResearch newsletter</a> — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.



The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed">Subscribe to daily Solana news</a> from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.