Katherine Ross

MobileCoin has appointed Sara Drakeley as CEO of the global payment infrastructure company.



Drakeley was previously chief technology officer at the firm, though she told Blockworks that she joined MobileCoin five years ago as an engineer following stints at SpaceX and Disney Animation Studios.



MobileCoin, known for its partnership with encrypted messaging app Signal, was in the news earlier this year after its chief product officer, Bob Lee, was killed in San Francisco.



Lee was also the creator of Cash App. The <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/arrest-in-bob-lee-killing">SFPD announced an arrest in connection with his killing</a> in April.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/cash-app-mobilecoin-bob-lee-killed">Cash App creator Bob Lee killed in San Francisco stabbing</a>



In an interview with Blockworks, Drakeley explained that part of her focus for MobileCoin (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/mob">MOB</a>) is “solving real problems for real people.”&nbsp;



In particular, she noted, she wants to focus on cross-border payments. Sending “money should be as easy as sending Signal messages,” said Drakeley.&nbsp;



“We are enabling communities globally to take control of their assets securely, hopefully leading to more economic development and stability through reliable infrastructure and easy-to-use mobile applications,” Drakeley said in a press release announcing her appointment on Wednesday.



She added: “The way that the traditional payments infrastructure works today is broken; taking anywhere from a day to a month for people to access their money is unacceptable in the age of rapid technological advancement.”



Drakeley also added that she believes stablecoins are critical for the infrastructure of global payments, and noted that there’s an appetite for them.



In October of last year, MobileCoin — in partnership with Reserve — <a href="https://mobilecoin.com/blog/mobilecoin-launches-eusd">announced</a> its own stablecoin, Electronic Dollars (eUSD), which is its own stablecoin. According to the announcement on the MobileCoin site, eUSD is “always backed by a basket of fully collateralized stablecoins.”



The company is also eyeing an expansion into Latin America and Africa.



“The goal is to provide innovative solutions that cater directly to these markets&#8217; unique needs and challenges and continue its global expansion through feedback from these users,” the press release said.



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MobileCoin’s new CEO wants to focus on cross-border payments

Shalini Nagarajan

Bob Lee, a former chief technology officer of Square and founder of Cash App, has reportedly died after a stabbing in San Francisco.&nbsp;



The San Francisco Police Department <a href="https://www.sanfranciscopolice.org/news/sfpd-investigates-main-street-homicide-23-039" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a> Tuesday that a 43-year-old male suffering from stab wounds passed away, but officials didn’t name the victim. However, local media and the CEO of MobileCoin confirmed the news.



Lee was most recently the chief product officer of crypto company <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/mobilecoin">MobileCoin</a>, where he supervised the firm’s entire product portfolio.&nbsp;



Joshua Goldbard, MobileCoin’s CEO, sent the following statement to Blockworks: &#8220;Bob was a force of nature. Helped to birth Android and CashApp into our world. Moby was his dream: a privacy protecting wallet for the 21st Century. I will miss him every day.&#8221;&nbsp;



The news was confirmed by his friends and colleagues on Twitter, including <a href="https://twitter.com/billbarhydt/status/1643482531533303808" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bill Barhydt</a>, CEO at trading platform Abra, and <a href="https://twitter.com/thatrpb/status/1643486318070996992" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jack Dorsey</a>, CEO at Square, who eulogized the tech executive.



“It’s real. Getting calls. Heartbreaking. Bob was instrumental to Square and Cash App. STL guy,” Dorsey wrote on decentralized social media platform Nostr.



Former Ultimate Fighting Championship fighter Jake Shields, who says he was a friend, <a href="https://twitter.com/jakeshieldsajj/status/1643470001566015488" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">wrote</a> on Twitter that Lee was in the “good” part of the city and appears to have been targeted in a mugging attack.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">I didn’t want to be the one to leak the name but now it’s out Bob Lee is an extremely high profile tech guy so hopefully this will at least bring attention to these problems <a href="https://t.co/YL3wN4UhuB">pic.twitter.com/YL3wN4UhuB</a>&mdash; Jake Shields (@jakeshieldsajj) <a href="https://twitter.com/jakeshieldsajj/status/1643470001566015488?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 5, 2023</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



No arrest has been made in the case as of press time, and the San Francisco police have not revealed further details on the suspect or motive.



“Officers rendered aid and summoned medics to the scene. The victim was transported to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries. Despite efforts by first responders and medical personnel, the victim succumbed to his injuries,” police said.



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Cash App Creator Bob Lee Killed in San Francisco Stabbing

Ben Strack

<div id="highlights-block_62223ef8c67f5" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Another former Block executive joined crypto payment company MobileCoin</li>
 <li>An ex-Citi executive was tapped to lead the growth of the Provenance Blockchain</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Ledger named Alex Zinder as vice president of Ledger Enterprise Solutions, as the executive will also join the company’s executive committee.



Zinder joined <a href="https://enterprise.ledger.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ledger Enterprise</a> in March 2021 after almost two decades in capital markets technology. He previously worked at Nasdaq in director of global software development and associate vice president of enterprise architecture roles.



Zinder will lead Ledger Enterprise Interact, a newly launched set of solutions allowing clients to manage interactions in smart contract-enabled protocols that support staking, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and other decentralized finance (DeFi) opportunities.



Compass Mining hired Jodie Fisher as its chief financial officer and Ro Shirole as its chief growth officer as the online marketplace for bitcoin mining hardware, hosting and reselling seeks to streamline its growth.



Fisher has taken companies through seed rounds, private equity financing, exit strategies and initial public offerings during her time as the CFO of several early stage technology companies and a controller at IBM.



Shirole, who was formerly vice president of business development at digital currency infrastructure company Compute North, will focus on expanding Compass’s reach from serving retail clients to also serving funds, family offices and institutional clients.



Crypto payment company MobileCoin added Alan Paulin as its vice president of engineering. Paulin joins from Block (<a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/jack-dorseys-square-to-change-its-name-to-block/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">formerly Square</a>), where he was director of engineering.&nbsp;



Paulin has also worked as a senior development lead at Microsoft, where he helped design Virtual Earth, and later was a senior software engineer at Google.



He becomes the second former Block employee to join MobileCoin, as Bob Lee, who was Block’s chief technology officer from 2010 to 2014 became the crypto business’s chief product officer in December.



The Provenance Blockchain Foundation named former Citi executive Morgan McKenney as its CEO. She will seek to partner with financial institutions, fintechs and developers to drive adoption of the open source, public blockchain, which is designed specifically for the financial services industry.



McKenney most recently served as special adviser at Centre, a consortium to promote the use of fiat-backed stablecoins. She also spent nearly 20 years at Citi in a range of senior executive roles, including chief operating officer for global consumer banking.



Crypto platform Descrypto Holdings, formerly known as W Technologies, hired Creenagh Flynn as its chief marketing officer.



Flynn was most recently a creative director for advisory and international relations firm MidAtlantic Capital Management and the CEO of business development solutions business Crave Genius, according to her LinkedIn page.&nbsp;



Bitcoin miner TeraWulf appointed Michael Bucella and Kerri Langlais to its board of directors as the company is focused on building a 100% zero-carbon energy grid.



Bucella is a partner and the global head of strategic partnerships and business development at crypto investment firm BlockTower Capital. He previously spent nearly a decade with Goldman Sachs running its multi-asset sales and trading business in Canada.



Langlais is TeraWulf’s chief strategy officer and is responsible for overall corporate strategy, business development, strategic partnerships and growth initiatives.



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Latest in Crypto Hiring: Ledger Enterprise Has New Leader

Jacquelyn Melinek

<div id="highlights-block_611d4587785b8" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Money pouring into digital assets space doesn&#8217;t seem to be letting up</li>
 <li>&#8220;The growth of the institutional market for digital assets in East Asia is just at its inception,&#8221; the Hyperithm co-founders said</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Two digital asset-based companies, MobileCoin and Hyperithm, have announced new fundraising of $66 million and $11 million, respectively, marking another day of strength for investment in the growing crypto sector.&nbsp;



In general, the digital asset space has seen a huge influx of investors and as of mid-June crypto funding hit an all-time high of $17 billion invested for 2021, Blockworks previously <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/crypto-venture-funding-is-at-an-all-time-high-this-is-where-the-money-is-going/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>. Lots of institutional investors are showing interest and venture funding is a way for these players to get involved, sources said. While enormous amounts of fundraising is being poured into the space every week, the interest doesn’t seem to be letting up. 



Some of the areas seeing the most venture capital interest are the DeFi and NFT spaces, Alex Thorn, head of firmwaide research at Galaxy Digital, previously told Blockworks in an interview. But overall, the crypto environment for investors is becoming more competitive, Thorn said, which points to the difference between median valuations in digital asset projects versus the broader venture capital market.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">MobileCoin moves to improve products</h3>



Digital payment company MobileCoin closed its $66 million Series B round on Wednesday, which will be used to help the company improve its products, it said. To date, the company has raised $107 million.&nbsp;



Investors include Sam Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research, Berggruen Holdings, BlockTower Capital, Coinbase Ventures, General Catalyst, Marc Benioff&#8217;s TIME Ventures, and Vy Capital.



The company is in the process of rolling out its initial stablecoin, which will hold value in line with the US dollar, it said. In April, Signal, a private messaging app, launched a beta payment feature with MobileCoin’s MOB token, which allows users to access it within its app. The company also has established products like MOBot, a cryptocurrency chatbot payment system.



MobileCoin is available on exchanges like FTX, Bitfinex, BigOne, and HotBit for non-US users.&nbsp; The company said its transactions are “one of the fastest in the world, completing in just seconds,” which gives senders and receivers more ability to minimize risk. “The technology was built for mobility and convenience, with payments occurring right on your phone,” it added.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Hyperithm invests funding in automated trading</h3>



Separately, the Tokyo-based Hyperithm, a private digital asset manager, raised $11 million in a Series B round co-led by Hashed and Wemade Tree.



Other participants included Coinbase Ventures, Cocone, GS Futures, and Guardian Fund. Although no exact number was shared, the latest round increased its valuation ten times compared to its previous Series A funding round from 2019, the company said. The last round was led by VIP Research &amp; Management, an asset manager with $20 billion in assets under management.&nbsp;



The company was co-founded in 2018, by an ex-Morgan Stanley investment banker Sangrok Oh and entrepreneur Lloyd Lee and operates in Tokyo and Seoul. It specializes in automating trading and risk management through algorithms in the programming language Rust. Today, Hyperithm mainly has investors based in Asia, specifically Japan, Korea and Singapore, but also has participants from the US, it said.&nbsp;



&#8220;The growth of the institutional market for digital assets in East Asia is just at its inception,&#8221; Lee and Oh said in a statement. &#8220;While facilitating the soft landing of digital assets into the mainstream capital markets, we will continue our journey to become a global financial institution.&#8221;



Want more investor-focused content on digital assets? <a target="_blank" href="https://cms.blockworks.co/events/digital-asset-summit-2021-2/" rel="noreferrer noopener">Join us</a> September 13th and 14th for the Digital Asset Summit (DAS) in NYC. Use code ARTICLE for $75 off your ticket. <a target="_blank" href="https://cms.blockworks.co/events/digital-asset-summit-2021-2/" rel="noreferrer noopener">Buy it now</a>.