Voyager Digital CFO Exits After 5-Month Term

Voyager Digital’s chief financial officer (CFO) resigned some three months after the crypto lender filed for bankruptcy.

Ashwin Prithipaul, who worked there for just five months, will leave after a transition period for other opportunities, the company said in a statement on Friday. CEO Stephen Ehrlich will take up his duties in the meantime.

“On behalf of the Board of Directors and the executive leadership team, I want to extend our sincerest gratitude to Ashwin for his many valuable contributions, especially for his efforts during Voyager’s restructuring process,” Ehrlich said in the statement. 

Prithipaul previously held CFO roles at financial brokerage DriveDigital and at crypto investment firm Galaxy Digital. It isn’t clear where Prithipaul is headed next.

Voyager is among a handful of crypto lenders hurt by the recent crypto market downturn. The unraveling of the market led by bankruptcies at Three Arrows Capital, Celsius and Voyager highlighted the perils of contagion and poor risk management. The firm had more than 100,000 creditors at the time of insolvency, but it has drawn ample interest to warrant competing bids for its remaining assets.  

Creditors objected to employee retention bonuses

The firm had wanted to pay retention bonuses to employees during its bankruptcy proceedings under a “key employee retention plan” proposal. It had marked 38 employees as key to the business due to their “valuable institutional knowledge” that would be expensive to replace quickly. If executed, the plan would’ve cost nearly $2 million. 

But Voyager’s creditors objected, saying the firm hadn’t provided enough reasons to warrant that decision. They also opposed the fact that Voyager had made no layoffs, unlike other crypto companies like Coinbase, Bitpanda, BlockFi and Blockchain.com. At the time, only 12 employees had left voluntarily. 

Voyager is set to liquidate its assets after an auction, with the final results set to be announced on Sept. 29 at 2:00 pm ET.

---

Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

• Blockworks Daily: The newsletter that helps thousands of investors understand crypto and the markets, by Byron Gilliam.
• Empire: Start your morning with the top news and analysis to inform your day in crypto.
• Forward Guidance: Reporting and analysis on the growing intersection of crypto and macroeconomics, policy and finance.
• 0xResearch: Alpha directly in your inbox. Market highlights, data, degen trade ideas, governance updates, token performance and more.
• Lightspeed: Built for Solana investors, developers and community members. The latest from one of crypto’s hottest networks.
• The Drop: For crypto collectors and traders, covering apps, games, memes and more.
• Supply Shock: Tracking Bitcoin’s rise from internet plaything worth less than a penny to global phenomenon disrupting money as we know it.