Bitcoin News and Price | Bitcoin.News

JPMorgan Hires Former Celsius Network Executive Aaron Iovine As Crypto Regulatory Policy Head

by Blockchain NewsOctober 19, 2022

JPMorgan Chase & Co. on Wednesday announced the appointment of former Celsius Network executive Aaron Iovine as its new head of digital assets regulatory policy, a newly created job position as confirmed by a JPMorgan spokeswoman.

Mr. Iovine, who is the former head of policy and regulation for the bankrupt crypto lending platform Celsius Network Ltd., will help JPMorgan navigate regulatory affairs for digital asset trading matters.

Iovine will work with JPMorgan’s regulatory affairs group headed by Sharon Yang, who in the past served as a deputy assistant secretary for international financial markets at the Treasury Department.

Celsius hired Iovine in February this year from Cross River Bank, a digital asset-friendly regional lender. Upon Iovine’s departure, Celsius recently hired Benjamin Melnicki from Robinhood Markets Inc. as its head of cryptocurrency compliance and regulation.

Iovine, who is an experienced attorney, spent almost three years at Cross River, where he led policy and regulatory affairs, according to his LinkedIn profile. He left Celsius in September, two months after the crypto-lending platform filed for bankruptcy in New York.

The announcement comes less than a month after the chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase Jamie Dimon told lawmakers that cryptocurrencies are “decentralized Ponzi schemes.”

In congressional testimony on September 22, Dimon referred to himself as “a major skeptic” on cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Despite his hate for cryptocurrencies, the CEO embraces DeFi and blockchain as real and novel technologies that can be applied in both private and public sectors.

The hiring reflects the company’s commitment to compliance, as well as its recognition that firms require seasoned teams to deal with cryptocurrency regulatory issues. Regulators are increasing their scrutiny of the digital asset sector following the rising popularity of cryptocurrency trading activities. This has led some companies in the industry to pay closer attention to their compliance procedures.

Image source: Shutterstock

Source

Kraken Hires Gemini Executive Blair Halliday As UK’s Managing Director

by Blockchain NewsOctober 16, 2022

Kraken crypto exchange has appointed Gemini’s U.K. Chief, Blair Halliday, as its new Managing Director for its UK operations. Blair Halliday has been serving as UK Managing Director for the Winklevoss twins’ exchange Gemini, and this means that he is taking over the same role at Kraken exchange.

According to a statement released on Friday, Halliday will replace Curtis Ting, who has been appointed as a global senior Managing Director to be in charge of covering multiple jurisdictions.

Halliday will oversee Kraken’s “commercial, regulatory and political relationships in the UK,” as well as its 350-employee base, the report stated.

Stephanie Ramezan, a former Director of Business Development at Gemini, will replace Halliday as the new Managing Director in charge of UK operations.

Halliday had been working at Gemini since 2020, first serving as its Chief Compliance Officer for Europe before being promoted to its UK Managing Director in July 2020.

Amid a bear market, there has been a series of job shifts among crypto executives as some join other Web3 ventures leaving investors with uncertainty.

Alex Mashinsky, the CEO of the bankrupt crypto lender Celsius, was among the latest executives who recently resigned from their positions. The surge in departures has raised serious concerns over investors’ deposits in crypto platforms.

In August, ZebPay CEO Avinash Shekhar quit the oldest cryptocurrency exchange to start his startup in the Web 3.0 landscape. His new venture is reportedly dealing with crypto tax compliance issues.

In February 2022, WazirX co-founders Nischal Shetty and Siddharth Menon quit their day-to-day roles in the company, India’s leading cryptocurrency exchange. Menon deals with the Tegro marketplace for game assets, on the other hand, Shetty established his Web3 project Shardeum.

While investors’ money would not be lost if executives shift their positions, the moves usher in changes within the organizations. Protecting investors’ funds is the core principle of every exchange, but this staff personnel has different value sets.

When the market goes up, normally people do not see many changes in the senior leadership. But in a bear phase, managerial changes are reported frequently due to market and shareholders’ pressure. Market cycles could not only remove the unfit companies the business but also the people associated with them.

Image source: Shutterstock

Source

Tagged : BLAIR HALLIDAY / Exchanges / EXECUTIVE MOVE / GEMINI EXECUTIVE / Kraken

Flashbots Co-Founder Stephane Gosselin Resigns Following Disagreements with Colleagues

by Blockchain NewsOctober 9, 2022

Stephane Gosselin, the Co-Founder of Flashbots, announced on Friday that he has resigned from the Maximal Extracted Value (MEV) service following disagreements with the team.

Gosselin disclosed that he left working for the maximal extracted value (MEV) business last month because of differences with the team. However, it is still unclear which position he left at work – he has been serving as a Co-founder, General Manager, and Board Member at Flashbots.

While Gosselin did not reveal the details about his fallouts with his colleagues at work, he expressed his pride in the project’s accomplishments. He said maintaining censorship resistance is essential for a diversified and competitive MEV environment.

“In the short term, I am hopeful that validators will avoid connecting to relays that perform censorship. Blockspace suppliers putting economic pressure against censorship will go a long way to making sure it does not become ubiquitous,” Gosselin stated.

Flashbots, which was co-founded by Stephane Gosselin and Phil Daian in 2020, is a research and development company focused on Maximal Extractable Value (MEV). MEV is the profit that a miner or validator can make through their ability to arbitrarily include, exclude, or re-order transactions from the blocks they produce.

Flashbots made headlines in August when it blacklisted wallets associated with Tornado Cash sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department, a move that sparked an outcry from the Ethereum community members. Flashbots open-sourced some of its MEV-Boost code in response to the U.S. Treasury’s sanction of the Tornado Cash protocol in August, highlighting that its U.S.-based team must comply with the legislation.

While some Ethereum community members welcomed Flashbots’ decision, others were not thrilled with the move. Tornado Cash had been using Flashbots to improve upon the use of meta-transactions for user withdrawal UX.

Flashbots specializes in addressing MEV (Maximal Extractable Value) – an arbitrage trading strategy – in which validators and miners manipulate the order of on-chain transactions to reap profits by taking advantage of price differences. Besides that, Flashbots hosts private channels that prevent Ethereum users’ transactions from being viewed in a public mempool, thus protecting them against attacks targeting to extract MEV.

Image source: Shutterstock

Source

Tagged : EXECUTIVE MOVE / Flashbots / MAXIMAL EXTRACTED VALUE / News / STEPHANE GOSSELIN / Tornado.Cash

Bankrupt Crypto Lender Voyager’s CFO To Step Down Months After Appointment

by Blockchain NewsSeptember 24, 2022

Ashwin Prithipaul, the Chief Financial Officer of bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital Ltd, is expected to leave the company. The crypto firm said on Friday that the Finance Head would resign after a “transition period” to pursue other opportunities and that Chief Executive Officer Stephen Ehrlich will assume the role in the interim.

Prithipaul has served as CFO of the firm since May, according to his LinkedIn profile. In the past, he was the CFO at crypto exchange DriveDigital for nine months, and before that he was the CFO at crypto investment firm Galaxy Digital.

Voyager Digital collapsed due to its outstanding liquidity issues during the harsh winter period that started in May this year. As a result, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July to help contain the situation after suspending withdrawals on its platform.

The crypto winter triggered by the collapse of the algorithmic Terra and its ecosystem led to the crash of almost all the cryptocurrencies and threw the whole industry into crisis.

Many crypto-related firms struggled to keep their balance. Voyager became one of the highest-profile crypto companies to go out of business amid this year’s market crash. The firm filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July with outstanding liabilities of as much as $10 billion.

The company’s downfall came shortly after one of its largest debtors, the Singapore-based crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC), filed for bankruptcy in July, leaving its user funds at risk. 3AC owed Voyager more than $650 million in the stablecoin USDC and Bitcoin.

Voyager initiated the process of selling off its assets through auction exercise at the beginning of this month. The auction for the New York-based firm’s assets started on September 13.

Crypto exchanges Binance and FTX have reportedly made the top bids of approximately $50 million each for Voyager’s assets. But Binance’s current bid is considered slightly higher than that offered by FTX. Other bidders reportedly include digital asset investment manager Wave Financial and digital currency trading platform CrossTower.

The announcement for the winning bid is expected on September 29, although it could come earlier before that date.

Image source: https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/bankrupt-crypto-lender-voyagers-cfo-exit-months-after-appointment-2022-09-23/

Source

Tagged : ASHWIN PRITHIPAUL / EXECUTIVE MOVE / News / Voyager Digital

BingX Is Expanding Global Workforce Despite Crypto Winter

by Blockchain NewsAugust 20, 2022

BingX, a major social trading exchange based in Singapore, announced on Friday that it is actively hiring for roles across its global offices despite the current market downturn.

Established in 2018, BingX is a crypto copy trading exchange that offers spot, derivatives, and copy trading services to more than 100 nations worldwide.

The exchange is looking to fill more than 200 positions globally. Among some of the positions open are PR managers, product development, customer service and affiliates in Germany, South Korea, Turkey, Japan, Vietnam, Russia, and Spain.

Since the beginning of the second quarter this year, the crypto market has been on a downward trend, which has led several companies to either freeze hiring or enforce headcount reductions.

The overall market sentiments have not deterred BingX from enhancing its offerings and ensuring the ever-changing needs of its users are fulfilled.

Elvisco Carrington, BingX PR and Communications Director, commented: “BingX will accelerate its growth, even amidst such challenging times. We have always hired carefully and will continue to do so. This so-called crypto winter presents a rare chance for us to tap on some of the industry’s best talents and we will leverage on that.”

Different Responses to Bear Market

The previous few years have been a boom period for the crypto sector, with a market-wide rise in prices driving an expansion in the industry.

That is not the case currently as the bearish conditions started being witnessed in April 2022 and have unsurprisingly put the brakes on such growth.

Many major crypto-related companies announced layoffs, including Coinbase, Crypto.com, and BlockFi, among others, while the industry recorded a loss of 1,700 jobs in June alone.

Despite mass layoffs by major market participants, there are firms that are accelerating their hiring process.

In June, Binance announced its plans to hire more than 2,000 people across Europe, Asia, South America, and the Middle East.

Other firm companies such as Kraken, ConsenSys, Polygon, Chainlink Labs, Aave, and Uniswap Labs recently posted hundreds of job opportunities amid crashing crypto markets.

Image source: Shutterstock

Source

Tagged : BINGX / Crypto Winter / EXECUTIVE MOVE / Hiring / News

Allison Herren Lee Steps Down as US SEC Commissioner

by Blockchain NewsJuly 17, 2022

Democrat Allison Herren Lee stepped down from her position as a Commissioner of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday after serving the regulator for three years.

In a statement, her fellow commissioners said: “Allison has been a stalwart advocate for strong and stable markets, including by emphasizing the need for market participants to maintain the highest ethical standards. She has been a champion for stronger climate disclosures, whistleblower protections, and individual accountability for violations of the securities laws.”

Lee was nominated by President Trump to fill one of the Democratic seats on the commission in the spring of 2019. She was confirmed in July of that year.

Lee started working at the SEC in 2005, where she served various roles including being a counsel to former Commissioner Kara Stein and a senior counsel in the Division of Enforcement’s Complex Financial Instruments Unit.

Lee also briefly served as acting SEC chairperson under President Biden from January 2021 until Gary Gensler was appointed in April to fill the role on a permanent basis.

Her departure follows SEC Republican commissioner Elad Roisman, who vacated his seat in January of this year.

In June, Mr. Mark T. Uyeda was appointed by the Biden administration to fill up the Republican seat vacated by former commissioner Elad Roisman. Lee’s departure has given the Biden administration another open seat to fill at the SEC.

The SEC is now left with just four members: Mr. Gensler, Democrat Caroline Crenshaw, Republican Hester Peirce, and Republican Mark T. Uyeda.

The commission normally operates with five members. President Biden will need to nominate another Democrat to fill an open seat vacated by Lee.

Lee has been a vocal proponent of the SEC mandating climate-related disclosures for public companies as well as investment firms, broker-dealers, and investment advisers. She also argued in favor of enhanced disclosures concerning other environmental, social, and governance (ESG) matters and political contributions.

Lee recently supported a proposed rule for enhanced disclosures for private equity and hedge funds. She also recently encouraged the SEC to create a better system to hold securities lawyers accountable for providing bad advice to their public company clients.

In her public remarks, Lee expressed skepticism surrounding the crypto market. In March, she said digital assets mostly defy existing regulations and laws.

Image source: Shutterstock

Source

Tagged : COMMISSIONER ALLISON HERREN / EXECUTIVE MOVE / News / US SEC

Riot Blockchain Hires Nomura M & A Banker Jason Chung as Corporate Development Head

by Blockchain NewsJune 2, 2022

Riot Blockchain Inc, a Bitcoin infrastructure company based in Colorado, announced on Wednesday that it has hired investment banker Jason Chung from Nomura Holdings Inc as its head of corporate development.

Until recently, Chung was a Hong Kong-based managing director at Nomura. In this new role, Chung will lead corporate development affairs at Riot Blockchain, including mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and be responsible for building a superior corporate development group that drives the firm’s strategic growth. He will also assist the crypto firm with its financing strategy.

The former banker comes to Riot Blockchain with over 15 years of investment banking and corporate development experience. Previously, he served as a Managing Director in the mergers and acquisitions at Nomura, a role that he executed for more than five years, first based in New York and then in Hong Kong.

Before that, Chung was at Societe Generale SA, an investment banking company in New York, where he worked as a Vice President of M&A for eight years, according to his LinkedIn profile.

As 2022 continues to be the year of acquisitions, it appears that Riot Blockchain is still looking to bolster its business. The firm is hiring a Corporate Development Director to identify inorganic growth opportunities through acquisitions. The move is important as the current crypto space is faced with major acquisitions.

Riot Blockchain has recently made a number of acquisitions with the goal of increasing its US footprint in the global bitcoin mining landscape.

In April last year, the Nasdaq-listed mining company acquired Whinstone US, Inc. data centre operations in Texas.

Last December, Riot Blockchain acquired Ferrie Franzmann Industries LLC, doing business as ESS Metron, a company that designs and produces electrical equipment. ESS Metron is a key supplier of Riot’s Whinstone Bitcoin mining commercial data centre facility and a significant component in its effort to expand to 700 megawatts (MW) and scale its Bitcoin mining operations.

As per the report, Riot Blockchain owns the largest Bitcoin mining and hosting facility in North America through its subsidiary Whinstone US.

Image source: Shutterstock

Source

Tagged : EXECUTIVE MOVE / Hiring / Industry Expert / JASON CHUNG / Riot Blockchain

Riot Blockchain Hires Nomura M & A Banker Jason Chung as Corporate Development Head

by Blockchain NewsJune 2, 2022

Before that, Chung was at Societe Generale SA, an investment banking company in New York, where he worked as a Vice President of M&A for eight years, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Riot Blockchain has recently made a number of acquisitions with the goal of increasing its US footprint in the global bitcoin mining landscape.

In April last year, the Nasdaq-listed mining company acquired Whinstone US, Inc. data centre operations in Texas.

As per the report, Riot Blockchain owns the largest Bitcoin mining and hosting facility in North America through its subsidiary Whinstone US.

Image source: Shutterstock

Source

Tagged : EXECUTIVE MOVE / Hiring / Industry Expert / JASON CHUNG / Riot Blockchain

Coinbase Hires Former Snapchat Indian Executive to Lead Emerging Markets Business

by Blockchain NewsMay 3, 2022

Coinbase Inc, a global crypto exchange headquartered in the US, announced Sunday the appointment of Durgesh Kaushik – the former Managing Director in charge of Snapchat India and South Asia market development – to lead the exchange’s growth in emerging markets.

Kaushik, who joined Snap Inc, a US camera and social media company, in 2019 left the firm late last month. In the last year, Snap saw India’s daily active users rose150% year-on-year, hitting 100 million monthly active users.

At Coinbase, Kaushik will be in charge of scaling the exchange’s operations in India and also supporting the exchange’s entry into other markets in the Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and the Americas.

Nana Murugesan, the VP of International and Business Development at Coinbase, confirmed Kaushik’s appointment and said: “We’re excited to confirm that Durgesh Kaushik will be joining Coinbase on May 9 as our senior director for market expansion….His appointment to this global leadership role is an important step toward our entry in India, as well as our mission to increase economic freedom around the world.”

Looking at Global Markets

In 2019, Coinbase started launching its crypto trading platform in more markets as the company continues to make an “aggressive” international push.

So far Coinbase has expanded its product to several European countries and overseas territories, including Guernsey, Iceland, Lithuania, Andorra, Gibraltar, and the Isle of Man. Some of the markets that the firm is expanding into are becoming increasingly popular destinations for crypto use and related blockchain start-ups.

Last month, Coinbase launched its crypto trading in India and is working to widen its product offerings in the country.

While Coinbase’s India tech hub has 300 full-time staff, the firm plans to hire over 1,000 people in the nation this year. Coinbase Ventures, the company’s venture capital arm, has already invested $150 million in local Indian tech firms in the Web3 and crypto space and is identifying new opportunities to help Indian founders scale.

Image source: Shutterstock

Source

Tagged : Coinbase / DURGESH KAUSHIK / EXECUTIVE MOVE / Hiring / Industry Expert

The Crypto Council for Innovation Announces First-Ever Leadership Team

by Blockchain NewsApril 8, 2022

On Thursday, the Crypto Council for Innovation (CCI), a global alliance of crypto industry organizations, announced its first executive team to strengthen its leadership role and guide its work in policy advocacy and raising awareness of the benefits of digital currency.

The council made five appointments who are set to join the existing executive director Sheila Warren.

The association hired Former Senator Cory Gardner to serve as CCI’s chief strategist of political affairs; Amanda Russo, a global communications expert who formerly worked with the World Economic Forum, to serve as the council’s new director of communications; and Annie Dizon, formerly of the nonprofit TechSoup, as CCI’s director of operations.

The council appointed three executives to join the current CEO, Sheila Warren, in executing CCI’s efforts toward educating regulators, policymakers, and people around the globe about the transformational promise of cryptocurrency.

Meanwhile, the association also hired former Algorand Foundation CEO Sean Lee to advise the council on its Asia-Pacific expansion. The council also appointed Katherine Wu, a venture partner at Archetype, as its first research fellow.

In a statement, Sheila Warren, the group’s CEO, talked about the development and said: “The combined leadership and global experience of our new team members will fortify CCI’s expertise in a crucial moment, both within our organization and across the crypto industry worldwide.”

Promoting Innovation behind Crypto

Sheila Warren left working for the World Economic Forum and joined the CCI as executive director in January.

Later in February, the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange became a new Crypto Council for Innovation member. Gemini joined the list of other crypto-friendly firms to encourage policymakers to draft a robust regulatory structure.

The council is backed by several crypto exchanges and crypto investment firms. Some of the top-tier firms in the list include Andreessen Horowitz, Coinbase exchange, Jack Dorsey-owned Block (earlier Square), Fidelity Digital Assets, Paradigm, Ribbit Capital, etc.

Established in April 2021 as a joint effort by Coinbase and Block, the CCI strives to build interactions with regulatory organizations and government authorities, highlighting the potential of cryptocurrencies.

Last July, the council organized a virtual gathering called ‘The ₿ Word’ to discuss Bitcoin adoption in the sector. The event became a huge success with speeches from global personalities such as Elon Musk of Tesla and Jack Dorsey.

The Crypto Council for Innovation is a global alliance of crypto industry leaders that works to demonstrate the transformational promise of crypto assets and communicate their benefits to policymakers, regulators, and people worldwide.

Image source: Shutterstock

Source

Tagged : EXECUTIVE MOVE / Industry Expert / LEADERSHIP TEAM / NEW HIRES / THE CRYPTO COUNCIL FOR INNOVATION