Monthly Mint — 07.2022
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
To an industry filled with rocket ships🚀, unicorns and going to the moon🌛, it should come as no surprise that the OG of all things fantasy is entering the arena🦄. That’s right. The company that brought us Mickey Mouse, Mandalorian and even Remember the Titans🏈 is bringing us a little layer 2 magic✨.
ICYMI, Polygon and a handful of other web3 companies were accepted into Disney’s accelerator program, opening up A Whole New World🧞♂️ for virtual reality, NFTs and artificial intelligence. We’re here for the MATIC carpet ride that’s about to ensue, but let’s still be careful when we’re tasting the rainbow🌈.
Unfortunately, in the scheme of July lawsuits, poisonous Skittles are the least of our worries🤢. Coinbase is in the crosshairs of the SEC for selling digital assets that the SEC believes should be registered as securities. Happening alongside insider trading charges, controversial layoffs last month and a public breakup with ARK Invest💔, this year has been a tough one for the crypto kingpin. For the sake of our investment portfolios, we’re just hoping that the Kardashians don’t get involved — RIP Meta📉.
In more exciting news, a new chapter is being written in our favorite Flash Boys saga📚 (no…not Chapter Eleven). After receiving funding from FTX earlier this year, IEX is officially making crypto a priority as it gears up for the post-SBF resurgence. In the name of Queen Bey, we’re calling it the crypto Renaissance🎨.
We know it’s been a difficult couple of months — valuations are down, complaints are rampant and layoffs have continued to dampen our spirits, but crypto funding is truly Unstoppable☄️. With Hakuna Matata and WAGMI in mind, just keep thinking of How Far (We’ll) Go🌊. Long-term games with long-term people, remember?
Who We’re Following
Algorand: W. Sean Ford was promoted to Interim CEO. Sean was previously the COO. Link
Algorand Foundation: Eric Wragge joined as Global Head of Business Development & Capital Markets. Eric was previously a Managing Director and Head of Northern Europe ABS at JPMorgan. Link John Woods joined as Chief Technology Officer. John was previously the Director of Cardano Architecture at Input Output. Link
Amber Group: Benjamin Bai joined as Chief Legal Officer. Benjamin was previously the Chief Intellectual Property and International Litigation Counsel at Ant Group. Link
Binance.US: Jasmine Lee joined as Chief Financial Officer. Jasmine was previously the Chief Operating Officer at Acorns. Link
Circle: Christian Rolon joined the Finance & Strategy team at Circle. Christian was previously the Finance and Strategy Lead for Bitcoin, Equities, Lending, M&A & Venture at CashApp. We’re grateful for the continued partnership of Patrick Corker and Jeremy Fox-Geen on this assignment.
DCG: Puja Samuel joined as Head of Corporate Development. Puja was previously the Head of Ideation, Digital Innovation and AreaX, Corporate Investment Bank at JPMorgan. Link Diliana Damianova joined as Treasurer. Diliana was previously the Head of FP&A, North America Markets at Mastercard.
Electric Capital: Elizabeth Laraki joined as a Design Partner. Elizabeth is currently a Continuity Advisor at Y Combinator and previously a Design Leadership Advisor at Uber Freight. Link
Europa Partners: Sarah Olsen and Peter Wisniewski launched the firm as Co-Founders. Sarah was previously the Head of Corporate Development, Onyx at JPMorgan and Peter was previously the Co-Head of Global Trading at Galaxy Digital. Joshua Rawlins joined as Chief Operating Officer. Joshua was previously the Co-Head of Strategy and Corporate Development at Gemini. Link
Gemini: Layla Amjadi joined as VP of Product. Layla was previously a Director of Product Management, Metaverse at Meta. Link
Lightspeed: Anand Iyer joined as a Venture Partner. Anand was previously a Managing GP at Canonical Crypto. Link
Modular Capital: James Ho and Vincent Jow co-founded a crypto fund. James was previously a Principal at Altimeter and Vincent was an investor at Holocene Advisors. Link
MoonPay: Jim Esposito joined as Chief Operating Officer. Jim was previously the President and CEO of Cash App Investing. Link Akash Garg joined as Chief Technology Officer. Akash was previously the CTO and VP of Product at Afterpay Touch (VP of Engineering at Block post-acquisition). Link Garret McManus joined as VP of Marketing, Brand & Partnerships. Garret was previously the Head of Artist Development at CashApp. Link Tom Capone joined as Head of MoonPay Studios. Tom was previously the Head of Web3 at Creative Artists Agency. Abhay Mavalankar joined as Head of Corporate Development. Abbay was previously the Head of Ventures Investments and M&A at Cisco Investments. Finally, Asiff Hirji joined as a Senior Advisor to the CEO. Asiff is the President at Figure. Link
Mysten Labs: Ed Snook joined as Director of People Operations. Ed was previously a People Partner at Google. Link
OpenSea: Marko Iskander joined as VP of Engineering. Marko was previously the VP of Engineering at GitHub. Link
Pantera Capital: Samir Shah joined as Chief Operating Officer. Samir was previously a Managing Director and Head of Asset Management Sales at JPMorgan. Link Jasper Lewitton joined as President. Jasper was previously the President at Ancient.
Trust Machines: Manas Mohapatra joined as General Counsel. Manas was previously the Deputy GC and CTO at BNY Mellon. Link Dan Held joined as a Marketing Partner. Dan was previously a Director of Growth Marketing at Kraken. Link
Uniswap: Will Ruben joined as VP of Product. Will was previously a Senior Director of Product Management at Coinbase. Link
World Economic Forum: Brynly Llyr joined as Head of Blockchain and Digital Assets. Brynly was previously the General Counsel at cLabs. 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.
