The shakeout in the cryptocurrency industry resulted in thousands of job cuts. After a consolidation round, the threat has reached the corner of the office where head honchos sit.
Crypto exchange Kraken is said Jesse -Powell, founder, and CEO, will step down, and Chief Operating Officer David Ripley will replace him. This development follows the stepping down of Michael Saylor of Bitcoin, Michael Moro of Genesis, and Alameda Research’s Sam Trabucco.
The change of guard in the decade-old industry follows a spate of succession. Many prominent crypto leaders, including Powell, who developed the cryptos early and built a loyal Twitter Following, did not shy away from engaging online with detractors.
The crypto sector erased around $2 trillion from the market in the worst slump that landed many bosses in court for bankruptcy. Regulators and boards are now looking for people with different skill sets for top positions.
Deepali Vyas, who heads the search executive at Korn Ferry, is looking for CEOs for a crypto miner and says there will be more c-suite changes in the cryptocurrency industry this fall.
Takeover by Insiders
The changes started last month when Saylor, founder of MicroStrategy, relinquished his CEO position to focus more on Bitcoin. A couple of weeks later, Mori stepped down from the CEO position at Genesis, and the crypto brokerage firm was hit by exposure to Three Arrows Capital, a defunct hedge fund.
Co- the CEO of Trabucco, Alameda, announced on August 24 that he was stepping down to give priorities to other things.
Insiders are taking charge at Alameda and MicroStrategy, similar to Kraken. Genesis appoints COO Derar Islam as interim CEO while scrolling for a permanent replacement.
Powell, 42, said that the decision to step down was in the planning for more than a year as he contemplated doing personal things. He said he plans to give 40 instead of 80 hours a week and focus more on advocacy and products and less on management.
Influence of Founders
It is not easy to replace founders, and there are new risks. According to Bain Capital Crypto partner Stefan Cohen, the founders can influence developers and the community, which is important in crypto. Bain is an investment fund focusing on early-stage investors and protocol projects in MakerDAO and BlockFi.
Crypto is changing in such a manner that will further drive changes at the top in crypto organizations. The regulators want to tame the market and prevent any major risk to the broader financial market after. This move follows the market crash in May with the implosion of major stablecoin and many crypto lenders going bankrupt.
Binance Holdings ltd, the biggest crypto exchange operator, might need someone to fill in the next few years. CEO and Co-founder Changpeng Zhao indicated he would step aside in the next five years and become chairman.
