Tag: Hiring

Bank of America Opens Job Position for Crypto Public Policy Analysts

by Blockchain News

The Bank of America (BoA), an American multinational bank in Washington DC is seeking 27 applicants for the position of Policy Analysis and Insights Manager with a primary focus on fintech, cyber, AI, cryptocurrency, stablecoins, and blockchain.

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The new staff will identify new challenges and assess the possible impact to the enterprise.

The bank posted the job application via its official LinkedIn page. According to the bank, the candidate for this position will be in charge of researching and analyzing proposed policy changes and creating and implementing advocacy plans that support company objectives. 

In addition, the professional will be tasked with forming industry coalitions, drafting proposed legislation, amendments, and comments on regulations, creating analyses, position papers, executive summaries, and reports, and drafting external communications, including testimony for governmental and regulatory bodies.

The ideal candidate is expected to have 2-4 years of expertise in cryptocurrency markets and trading, as well as a demonstrated interest in and comprehension of fintech, cyber, AI, crypto, stablecoins, blockchain, associated industries, and related laws.

The Bank of America Getting Involved in Crypto

The job opening by the bank shows that it is highly interested in the blockchain industry and therefore seeks to improve its blockchain technological arm.

Following the trend of crypto in 2021, the BoA released an announcement to research crypto and digital assets. The Bank of America created a digital currency research team for the first time, under the direction of Alkesh Shah, as the hot ecosystem continues to gain traction among all classes of investors.

In September the Bank of America talked about the decision of the Binance exchange platform to convert all its customers’ existing balances and future deposits of three stablecoins into its own native Binance USD ( BUSD). In its research paper, the bank noted that while Binance’s decision may only have a little short-term financial impact on the exchange, it may have more significant long-term effects.

BoA strategists recently hinted that the recent shift in Bitcoin is an indication that it is becoming a safe haven in relation to other digital assets.

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Block on Hiring Spree for Bitcoin Mining, Wallet Hardware Businesses

by Blockchain News

Payments company Block has announced multiple job openings for its bitcoin mining and wallet hardware businesses.

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According to the company’s job postings on LinkedIn, the available job openings are heads of Bitcoin mining policy, communications, and partnerships.

Formerly known as Square, the company was introduced into the market in 2009, focusing on in-person payments and its namesake card reader, which lets people accept credit card payments on a smartphone.

The company’s name was changed to Square last year by CEO Jack Dorsey as they wanted to broaden their services towards blockchain, music, and cash transfers.

According to a job advertisement posted by Block on Saturday for a “test hub lead,” the firm said its mining team develops “bitcoin mining ASIC, bitcoin mining rig, and associated systems, software and infrastructure.”

The posting added that the test hub will “host Block’s mining hardware and will be used to test the hardware and software and the overall operational issues (power, cooling, dust, restart, performance monitoring, connectivity to pool) of the mining system.”

Other job openings also include product and engineering departments. These employees will help “to develop the next generation of mining ASIC”, along with building its “first mining rig” and “future mining rig product lines.”

Furthermore, several other open positions are available related to wallet design. 

Block revealed its Bitcoin hardware wallet this past spring.

According to a January report from CNBC, Block’s general manager for hardware, Thomas Templeton, outlined the company’s Bitcoin mining goals.

He tweeted, “common issues we’ve heard with current systems are heat dissipation and dust. They also become non-functional almost every day, which requires a time-consuming reboot. We want to build something that just works.”

Block’s push into mining has come when the sector is going through a difficult phase. Companies have been struggling with profit margins for the past few months as bitcoin’s value has dropped and energy prices have risen along with the global hash rate.

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Robinhood Seeks Sanctions Investigators ahead of Self-Custody Crypto Wallet Launch

by Blockchain News

Robinhood is seeking to hire several Sanctions Investigators for its finance crimes compliance unit as it may be broadening its offerings, according to its official Linkedin page.

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The job description includes reviewing and analyzing alerts of potential matches of Robinhood customers to denied parties, managing the investigative process from initial detection to disposition and reporting, annotating findings providing proof of evidence and a final decision, escalating any matches that cannot be resolved to Sanctions Investigation management and in addition any accurate positive matches to the Sanctions Office.

Robinhood is a standalone wallet app that offers brokerage services and allows users to trade and swap crypto without network fees.

According to reports, the Brokerage app hiring sanctions investigators could be related to the firm’s upcoming self-custody wallets launch, which will be released officially in the coming months.

Per the job posting, the role requires two-plus years of experience working in financial crimes investigation and one-plus years investigating cryptocurrency transactions. While not required, “Chainalysis experience” is welcome.

In August, the Brokerage app firm was slammed with a fine of $30 million by the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS).

As reported by Blockchain.News, the sanctions came as the regulator discovered that Robinhood Crypto violated several extant regulations, including the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), Anti-Money Laundering (AML) violations, transaction monitoring inadequacies, and failure to make provisions for cybersecurity regulation.

The regulator noted that it discovered the flaws behind the sanction in Robinhood Crypto’s operating models following a supervisory examination and a subsequent investigation.

Superintendent of Financial Services Adrienne A. Harris stated that as the Brokerage firm grew, it failed to “invest the proper resources and attention to develop and maintain a culture of compliance—a failure that resulted in significant violations of the Department’s anti-money laundering and cybersecurity regulations.”

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Fidelity Set to Hire 100 Employees to Strengthen its Crypto Firm

by Blockchain News

Fidelity Digital Assets, the asset management Behemoth Fidelity’s cryptocurrency division, has disclosed its plans to hire 100 new employees in the next six months to strengthen its workforce. 

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Chris Tyrer, the CEO of Fidelity Digital Assets Europe and Fidelity Digital Asset Management made this statement during a panel discussion at the Blockworks Digital Asset Summit earlier this week in London.

Tyrer said, “We’ve gone through a fairly aggressive hiring spree over the last 12 months and we probably, in excess, doubled the size of our organization, so we’re probably looking at adding another 100 over the next three to six months.” 

Recall that since its establishment, Fidelity Digital Assets offshoot has been actively involved in the crypto sphere. Again, the firm, which is in charge of $9.9 trillion, recently introduced an Ethereum index fund and developed a platform for digital trading assets alongside Charles Schwab and Citadel Securities.

Additionally, Fidelity Digital Assets, equally stated that to complement its current bitcoin trading and custody services, it will soon begin providing Ethereum to institutional clients. Before the announcement, the enterprise exclusively offered BTC trading services.

Hiring in Crypto Winter

Fidelity’s employment strategy is implemented at a time when numerous significant crypto companies are laying off employees. Recall that one of the oldest market makers in the sector, GSR, cut almost 10% of its personnel last week.

Similarly, the exchange hiring comes after many renowned cryptocurrency startups experienced executive departures. FTX, Kraken, Genesis, and NYDIG are leading crypto companies where top administrators have retired.

The Wall Street Journal reported back in May that Fidelity Digital Assets intended to hire 110 technical personnel and 100 customer service personnel this year.

Presently approximately 400 employees work with Fidelity Digital Assets according to Tyrer. He added that the platform services business, which includes everything from holding to trade execution, and the asset management firm are two independent entities.

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Nomura-Backed Digital Asset Firm Komainu Hires Nicolas Bertrand As CEO

by Blockchain News

Komainu, a regulated digital asset custodian for institutions, on Monday appointed former Italian stock exchange executive Nicolas Bertrand its new CEO. Bertrand’s appointment starts immediately, and he will be based in London.

Bertrand formerly served for more than 10 years at the Italian stock exchange Borsa Italia’s head of derivatives markets and commodities.

As a new CEO at Komainu, Bertrand is expected to drive growth at the company. While the executive has no plans to raise additional funds, he said he will focus on reducing spending, and promoting innovation, according to the report. Bertrand further revealed that Koimanu has provisional approval to operate in Dubai and will seek to get similar licensing for the UK.

Komainu appears trying to hire executives from the traditional finance exchange ecosystem. In April, the firm attempted to recruit the CEO of the London Metal Exchange, Matthew Chamberlain, who eventually opted to remain in the leadership of the metal marketplace amid a nickel crisis associated with a reduced supply of nickel in the market.

Komainu, which was founded in 2022, is a joint venture between Japanese investment bank Nomura, digital asset manager CoinShares, and digital asset security company Ledger. In March last year, Komainu raised $25 million in Series A funding led by hedge fund manager Alan Howard.

In July, Komainu obtained provisional approval to operate in Dubai. The license from the Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) enabled the company to provide crypto products and services to institutional clients in Dubai. Komainu, which has already established a strong presence in the Asia-Pacific region, is seeking to expand its business in the Middle East.

Dubai is emerging as a key player in the crypto world. In March, the city established VARA and since then has awarded licenses to crypto exchanges such as FTX Europe, Binance, Crypto.com, and Bybit, among others.  Dubai’s emergence as a crypto hub has been accelerated by tougher regulations in key crypto centres like Singapore, where the city-state’s central bank and financial regulators have heightened crackdown on some crypto activity.

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Animoca Brands Hires Jared Shaw as New CFO

by Blockchain News

Blockchain venture capital and gaming startup Animoca Brands have added new experts to its executive train, highlighting yet again its readiness to take a frontline leadership role in the industry. 

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In the latest update, Animoca Brands said it has hired Jared Shaw as its new Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Shaw’s experiences also feature the Gemini exchange, where he held a similar role and was instrumental in helping the crypto exchange chart an ambitious growth.

As the new CFO at Animoca Brands, the company said Shaw will oversee and support the strategic financial direction of Animoca Brands and its more than 380 portfolio companies.

“Jared has a wealth of experience spanning audit, asset management, crypto, and more. He joins us at a time when the finance team is growing rapidly and building strong capabilities,” Evan Auyang, president of Animoca Brands, “Jared brings to us not only relevant experience from leading Gemini’s finance operations, but also extensive business, audit, and asset management experience at Goldman Sachs, Ernst & Young, and Prudential. We believe that Jared’s strong leadership background will help to take Animoca Brands to the next level.”

Animoca Brands is one of the most capitalized companies in the digital currency ecosystem, having topped its liquidity pool with a new $110 million funding received earlier this month, as reported by Blockchain.News. 

To properly position its business, Animoca Brands has also hired May Szeto as the Group’s HR Director, Jamii Quoc as the Head of Legal – Commercial and M&A, Samuel Tse as the M&A Director, and Josh Du who will be the new Head of Digital Assets Portfolio.

Buffing up its management team is not a new move for Animoca Brands, as the company made a related pushback in July. At the time, it added Alan Lau as the Chief Business Officer, as well as a host of other industry veterans. 

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Wachsman Appoints Cointelegraph CEO Jay Cassano as Chief Growth Officer

by Blockchain News

Wachsman, a major global public relations firm serving the Web3 and financial technology sectors, announced Monday for the appointment of Cointelegraph CEO Jay Cassano as the company’s new Chief Growth Officer.

Cassano will be responsible for spearheading innovation, working across Wachsman’s global network to scale new service verticals, including community management, content marketing, social media services, and digital marketing to support the company’s growing base of Web3 and fintech clients.

Cassano worked at Cointelegraph crypto media firm as Editor-in-Chief for one year before becoming its CEO. Cassano’s other significant accomplishments at the crypto media company include launching CT Studio, the media company’s marketing and branding agency.

Before joining Cointelegraph, Cassano served as a staff reporter at Fast Company and as an investigative journalist at Newsweek, among other editorial positions.

Wachsman Founder and CEO, David Wachsman, talked about Jay’s appointment: “Jay is an exceptional talent, possessing a unique mix of leadership and Web3 expertise, coupled with an in-depth understanding of the media and omni-channel marketing. With Jay’s leadership, we will be able to deliver even more integrated and impactful programming for our clients globally.”

Why are Crypto Executives High Demand?

Despite the crypto downturn, fintech and related companies have been keen to hire talents with relevant skills as they aim to add expertise to their blockchain projects. In the recent past, crypto firms from Bitpanda, Coinbase, BlockFi Inc., among others, slashed massive jobs positions. But many crypto workers with the right skills are finding themselves in demand at the heart of the finance industry.

This month, Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., announced plans to hire staff with blockchain experience. And they are not the only ones. Many other related tech firms are also interested in hiring people with experience in the technology that underpins cryptocurrency, a market that continues to grab the attention of banking clients and regulators.

The downturn in crypto trading, with low transaction activities and slow hiring, has become an opportunity for traditional financial and tech firms. Most of these firms have avoided the spot market for cryptocurrencies due to regulatory uncertainty. But they are developing alternative ways to trade the volatile asset class while exploring wider uses for the blockchain in areas like web3, payments, and supply chains.

A crypto worker’s prospects depend on their previous role. Tech, security, compliance and client management staff are particularly in high demand, especially for executives with the most sought-after skills.

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Crypto Bank Protego Trust Appoints Ron Totaro as CEO

by Blockchain News

Protego Trust Bank, a Seattle-based federally-chartered bank serving the digital asset needs of institutional clients, announced on Monday the appointment of fintech leader Ron Totaro as the company’s new Chief Executive Officer.

Totaro’s coming follows recent appointments that Protego Trust recently made to its board of directors and an advisory board of industry and regulatory leaders.

Greg Gilman, founder and CEO of Protego Holdings Corp, commented about Totaro’s hiring: “Ron brings a solid understanding of digital asset and blockchain technology as well as strong relationships with banking and private equity leaders. I am looking forward to working with him to finalize the OCC approval process and launch our much-needed bank platform for institutional investors to securely custody, trade, lend and issue digital assets, including cryptocurrencies.”

Totaro brings over three decades of financial services expertise in building and leading fintech, banking, payments, and blockchain firms.

During his career, Totaro has served as an executive, board member, and advisor to public companies, private equity and venture capital-backed businesses. His proficient service delivery earned him a reputation for scaling businesses while driving profit and revenue growth.

In his earlier career, Totaro held leadership roles at analytics software company FICO, GE Capital, and payment card services company American Express.

Totaro also served as COO (Chief Operating Officer) at payment systems company ACI Worldwide which he led the transformation of the business while driving accelerated top and bottom-line growth.

Recently, Totaro served as CEO of Tassat Group, which he led the firm to become the market-leading provider of blockchain-based, real-time payment solutions enabling banks to tokenize U.S. dollar deposits and transition from traditional payment rails to blockchain technologies.

Expanding Hiring Despite Market Rout

Protego joins a group of crypto firms that recently onboarded new CEOs and other executives as part of efforts to drive their institutional growth.

In May, TRM Labs appointed former Associate Deputy Attorney General Sujit Raman, at the US Department of Justice (DOJ) as the company’s General Counsel.

In June, Uniswap Labs hired the former president of the New York Stock Exchange, Stacey Cunningham, as its adviser.

In July, blockchain company Algorand hired Chief Operating Officer W. Sean Ford as its interim CEO. Besides that, crypto financial services company EQONEX also appointed Nick Cogswell as head of sales for its asset management business.

Also, in late July, ZASH Global Media and Entertainment named Erik Finman as its CEO, tasked with overseeing the company’s expanding crypto and NFT initiatives.

Despite the ongoing market crash, crypto firms like Polygon, Circle, Binance, and others, have maintained hiring top talent from Big Tech firms, enticing them with the pitch of working on the next “big thing” in tech — Web3.

Executives at tech giants, such as Google, Facebook, and Amazon, are quitting to take jobs in the buzzy crypto world.

The buzz surrounding Web3 has attracted some of the brightest minds in tech. The Web3 movement proposes overhauling the internet to move popular online services over to decentralized technologies like blockchain.

Tech executives are being attracted to the crypto industry due to its rapid growth and lucrative compensation packages.

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Polygon to Hire 200 New Workers despite Market Downturn: Bloomberg

by Blockchain News

With the crypto winter spelling the downfall of many cryptocurrency giants like Celsius Network, Three Arrows Capital (3AC), and Voyager Digital, outfits like Polygon are exploring avenues to take advantage of the situation.

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In an interview with Bloomberg, Polygon’s Head of Human Resources, Bhumika Srivastava, said the Layer-2 scaling solution has plans to hire as many as 200 new staff before the end of the year. While the new positions can be undertaken on-site, some can also work remotely, offering the necessary flexibility that Web3.0 experts crave.

Bolstering Polygon’s Ecosystem Growth

Unlike bankrupt crypto services providers whose businesses are hinged on speculative pricing, Polygon offers an infrastructure that generally makes Ethereum more usable. Based on its role in the emerging Web3.0 world, Polygon has continued to gather more relevance in the space and, as such, needs talented staff to join its ranks.

With its noble approach to onboarding more hands, Srivastava said sourcing new talent is becoming more difficult in the Web3.0 space, considering the industry is still relatively new.

“Overall tech talent is difficult to hire even if it is a Web2 organization,” Srivastava said, adding that “It is difficult to hire the quality talent you want, especially as Web3 skills is something that’s still getting built.”

Based on the scarcity, the few landed workers are often paid a bogus salary ranging from $100,000 to $400,000.

The noble push by Polygon to onboard new staff is highly antagonistic to a move from major crypto outfits like Coinbase Global Inc, Gemini, and BlockFi, all of which have cut some of their staff in a bid to reposition themselves to survive the crypto winter.

Polygon landed $450 million in funding earlier in the year through private token sales. Using this capital injection, the Dubai-based startup has stayed resilient in the crypto winter.

 

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Elliptic Hires OakNorth’s Jackson Hull as Chief Technology Officer

by Blockchain News

Elliptic Ltd, a blockchain analytics firm based in London, announced the appointment of Jackson Hull as the company’s new Chief Technology Officer on Thursday.

Hull comes with over 20 years of in-depth relevant experience in software as a service (SaaS) to Elliptic. Hull, a renowned expert in building innovative and scalable analytics and data platforms, has developed award-winning products across financial services sectors.

Most recently, Hull worked at OakNorth Bank, where he led the Product, Information Security, Engineering and Design teams in building the firm’s credit risk analytics platform.

Before that, Hull worked as Chief Technology Officer at the well-known British insurtech brand GoCo Group, developing and scaling high-volume transactional platforms in heavily regulated markets.

Hull’s experience in working with global financial firms implies he possesses significant insight into the challenges encountered by Elliptic’s clients. His passion for developing world-class engineering teams fits well with the Elliptic team.

Hull’s hiring comes at the right time when Elliptic recently launched its next-generation blockchain analytics engine, Holistic Screening, which establishes a new standard for cryptocurrency risk management.

Simone Maini, CEO at Elliptic, talked about the appointment: “Having someone with Jackson Hull’s background and experience join our leadership team validates Elliptic’s vision to make a world powered by crypto fairer and safer for all.”

Fight Against Financial Fraud

Formed in 2013, London-based Elliptic helps crypto businesses and financial institutions to meet their Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Counter-Terrorism Financing (CTF), and sanctions compliance obligations.

Early last month, Elliptic launched a new risk analytics tool called Holistic Screening to track and screen crypto movement across multiple blockchains.

Attacks on crypto bridges have been a good fortune for hackers this year. In July, Chainalysis, another blockchain analytics company, released a study that identified that cross-chain bridges alone account for around $2 billion in stolen funds this year.

Such stolen crypto assets are then mostly laundered through cross-chain DeFi products (including bridges and decentralized exchanges) and mixer services to evade sanctions.

Elliptic’s Holistic Screening helps crypto users (like businesses and financial institutions) to quickly and at scale trace stolen funds moved from one blockchain to another using a bridge.

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