Monthly Mint — 05.2022
A curated selection of hires and promotions from across crypto and web3. If you would like to sign up to receive this newsletter, please visit our website.
What We’re Following
In a month that started with wars of the cloth👕 and ended with wars of the coin💰, we saw absolute carnage in crypto and tech markets alike. Tiger Global announced $17bn in losses, Coinbase revenues dropped 27% and US inflation continued climbing up and to the right as growth tech stocks did the opposite😫.
The pièce de résistance? The unfortunate depegging of UST and ensuing collapse of the Terra Luna ecosystem. With the world’s largest stablecoin, Tether, threatening to follow suit, it’s important to remember that not all stablecoins are created equal⚖️ (check out this blog post from our friends at Circle for a refresher on the basics). All market swings aside, progress continues to be made around stablecoin regulation and we’re feeling the sentiment start to shift. Buckle up because these ups and down are just how things operate here in Goblin Town👺.
Blood may have been shed in the stablecoin wars, but we’re hopeful that this saga can be redeemed by a punny docuseries. First, The Dropout made us uncomfortable💉, then We Crashed brought out our inner supernova🌠 (everybody loves a comeback), and finally, Joseph Gordon-Levitt got us Super Pumped🚕. Nominees for the next streaming hit include Too Fast — We’re Furious, Bolting for the Exit and A Terra-ble Tattoo. When life hands you lemons🍋, right?
If you feel like you’re living in a black hole right now (AKA an intergalactic glass case of emotion), at least you finally know what that looks like. ICYMI, scientists released the first ever photo of a black hole at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy🌌. Over 26,000 light-years from Earth and four million times larger than the Sun, this black hole certainly puts things in perspective. Thank you EHT 🔭(lol, not ETH) for this monumental scientific achievement and reminder that the universe is much bigger than our fledgling PAs.
Last but not least, drop us a line if you’re headed to Austin for Consensus next week. We’re always down to get weird over barbeque and brews🐷. Plus, we’ll be toasting a heartfelt welcome to the newest member of team Intersection — Sachin Parmar. Welcome to the crew, Sachin!
🍻 Cheers,
Catherine, Elizabeth, Ethan, Hugh, Kali, Keanan, Kelsey, Sachin & Scott
Who We’re Following
10T Holdings: Eric Vincent joined as President and Partner. Eric was previously a Partner at Sarissa Capital Management. Link
Binance.US: Joshua Eaton joined as Deputy General Counsel. Joshua was previously a Deputy U.S. Attorney in the Northern District of California. Link
Blockdaemon: Chris Sharp joined as Chief Technology Officer. Chris was previously a Director, Apple Pay Engineering at Apple. Link
BlockTower Capital: Ryan Silva joined as Head of Trading. Ryan was previously a Senior Portfolio Manager at Celsius.
Centre: Rebecca Cohen joined as General Counsel. Rebecca was previously an Associate General Counsel at Worldcoin. Link We’re grateful to David Puth and the Centre team for their partnership on this important assignment.
Chainlink: Kemal El Moujahid joined as Chief Product Officer. Kemal was previously a Director of Product Management at Google. Link
Coinbase: Ronak Daya joined as Head of Financing Products. Ronak was previously the Global Head of Credit Products and Operations, Square Banking at Square. Link Jonathan Eide joined as VP of Business Operations and Strategy. Jonathan was previously the Head of Monetization, Applied Research and Product Strategy at Meta. Link Greg Roseberry joined as VP of Financial Planning & Analysis. Greg was previously the Head of Strategic Finance at Pinterest. We’re grateful for the continued partnership of Alesia Haas and Lauren Novita on this critical assignment.
FTX: Marissa MacDonald joined as Chief Compliance Officer. Marissa was previously the CCO of Fidelity Digital Assets at Fidelity. Link
Galaxy Digital: Danielle Johnson joined as Head of Private Capital Markets. Danielle was previously the Head of Venture Capital Coverage at Credit Suisse. Link
Gemini: Eddie Ma joined as VP of Engineering, Nifty Gateway. Eddie was previously the Head of Engineering at Level. Link
Kava Labs: Ryan Reynolds joined as Director of Product. Ryan was previously the Head of Product at Trim.
Lightspark: David Marcus co-founded Lightspark and joined as the Chief Executive Officer. David was previously the Head of Novi at Meta. Christian Catalini joined as a Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer. Christian was previously a Founder and Research Scientist at the MIT Cryptoeconomics Lab. Jai Massari joined as a Co-Founder and Chief Legal Officer. Jai was previously a Partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell. Christina Smedley joined as a Co-Founder and Chief Marketing & Communications Officer. Christina was previously the Chief Marketing & Communications Officer at Robinhood. James Everingham joined as a Co-Founder and SVP of Engineering. James was previously a VP of Engineering, Novi at Meta. Kevin Hurley joined as a Co-Founder and Chief Architect. Kevin was previously a software engineer at Novi. Link
Meld: Pankaj Bengani announced the official launch of Meld and joined the company as a Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer. Pankaj was previously the Global Platform and Partnerships Lead at Block. Hank Pham joined as a Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer. Hank was previously a VP of Engineering at Finix. Link
Paradigm: Caitlin Pintavorn joined as an Investor. Caitlin was previously an Investor at Insight Partners. Link
Polygon Studios: Taryn McCarty joined as Head of Community. Taryn was previously the Head of Community at Nerd Street Gamers. Link Kelly DiGregorio joined as VP and Head of Global Entertainment BD. Kelly was previously the VP of Partnerships at Dapper Labs. Link
Sealance: Yash Ahluwalia joined as Chief Product Officer. Yash was previously a VP of Product Management at Diem Association. We’re grateful for the partnership of Shlomit Azgad, Eran Tromer and Matt Green on this assignment.
Talos: Conor Shea joined as Head of Marketing and Communications. Conor was previously an SVP of Financial Communications & Capital Markets at Edelman. Link
TRM Labs: Sujit Raman joined as General Counsel. Sujit was previously a Partner at Sidley Austin. Link
Zero Hash: Ed Guerra joined as Chief Compliance Officer. Ed was previously the Chief Compliance and Bank Secrecy Officer at Chime. Link
Intersection Growth Partners builds the leadership teams for many of the most exciting crypto and web3 firms in the world. Our venture fund provides these firms with capital: yielding deep alignment and extraordinary outcomes.
