Copper’s new CEO from Goldman marks crypto hiring spree

Copper has appointed Amar Kuchinad as its new global CEO.

Kuchinad takes over from Dmitry Tokarev, who founded the crypto trading technology provider that counts former UK finance minister Philip Hammond as one of its backers.

Tokarev was CEO for seven years. He remains on Copper’s board.

Kuchinad began his career at Credit Suisse, and was head of US portfolio credit trading at Goldman Sachs.

He was also a senior policy advisor to the Securities and Exchange Commission, and founded an SEC-registered company, Electronifie, to automate bond trading.

The move comes as several firms in the crypto industry are upping their headcount.

Here are some other major job moves in the crypto world.

OpenSea, SEC, Coin Center

Former Consensys senior counsel Laura Brookover announced on X that she joined OpenSea as deputy general counsel.

The SEC’s enforcement chief Gurbir S. Grewal left the regulator on October 11. He joins Milbank’s litigation and arbitration practice as a partner in New York.

Grewal led investigations against crypto firms including Binance and Coinbase.

Grewal is not the only enforcement lawyer to have left the agency recently.

Former associate director of the division of enforcement Carolyn Welshhans joined Morgan Lewis as a partner in Washington this month. David Hirsch joined McGuireWoods as a partner in August.

The founding executive director of Coin Center Jerry Brito and the crypto advocacy group’s senior policy counsel Robin Weisman will step down by the end of this year, Brito wrote on social media.

Research director Peter van Valkenburgh and policy counsel Landon Zinda take over from Brito and Weisman respectively.

Brito and Weisman retain their seats on Coin Center’s board.

Coinbase, OKX

Jesse Pollack, the creator of Coinbase’s Layer 2 Base, stepped up to the executive team, and also now leads the company’s Wallet team.

Pollack joined Coinbase in 2017, and led its consumer-facing engineering, including building Coinbase, Coinbase Pro, and Coinbase Wallet, before creating Base.

Manish Gupta, executive vice president of engineering at Coinbase, left the company to recharge and spend more time with his family, he wrote in a post.

Before joining Coinbase, Gupta spent 16 years at Google, and two years at Lyft in senior engineering roles.

OKX has hired Yuri Mushkin as global chief risk officer, based in Singapore.

Mushkin joins from investment advisory firm McKinsey Investment Office. He has also held executive roles at Goldman Sachs.

State Street

State Street hired Vanessa Fernandes as head of digital asset solutions.

Fernandes reports to Donna Milrod, chief product officer at the bank. Fernandes joins from BNY Mellon, where she developed a digital-first strategy for the bank’s products and platforms.

Prometheum, Token Terminal, Multiverse

Jacek Bugaj joined Prometheum as head of product.

Bugaj has more than 20 years’ experience in capital markets and fintech. Most recently, he was head of macro product management at hedge fund Two Sigma.

Bloomberg’s former global head of cryptocurrency product and digital asset lead Alex Wenham left the data giant. He is currently a strategy advisor to data platform Token Terminal.

Wenham spent almost 14 years at Bloomberg, joining as a foreign exchange specialist.

Former Cardano chief marketing officer Adam Bates joins blockchain network MultiversX as its new CMO.

In prior roles, Bates oversaw major marketing campaigns for companies including Virgin Airlines, Barclays, Mercedes-Benz, and Samsung. He was a director at marketing giant BDDO in London for 11 years.

Want to see your or one of your company’s career moves featured in this roundup? Email joanna@dlnews.com.