Latest In Crypto Hiring: Point72 Poaches Robinhood Pro
Last week crypto firms showed they like some traditional finance experience
Artwork by Axel Rangel, modified by Blockworks
In another busy week for crypto hires, firms seem to be taking a liking to candidates with traditional finance credentials.
As regulatory pressures ramp up and market sentiment shifts, crypto companies have an eye on attracting talent with the skills to advance the sector’s adoption.
Matthew Commons joined Algorand as the blockchain’s first chief financial officer. As a chartered financial analyst and former president of advisory firm Commons Partners LLC, Commons is no stranger to traditional finance or crypto.
Commons will head up Algorand’s capital management and future growth initiatives, the layer-1 said.
“I have long admired Algorand’s technology, and to be able to join at a moment of strategic evolution is incredibly exciting,” Commons said in a statement. “There are tremendous opportunities for Algorand to extend its leadership across many sectors of blockchain. One of my first priorities will be to help identify strategic growth areas with the leadership team, and then ensure we have the right financial plans in place to go after them.”
Also making the move to chief financial officer is venture capital veteran Thomas Fecker Boxler, who joined the Web3 Foundation this week. Boxler comes from Swiss VC fund Serpentine Ventures, where he served as chief operating officer.
Earlier in his career, Boxler founded information technology firm t10r Kapital and co-founded crypto liquidity provider and market-maker Flovtec.
The Web3 Foundation is a research and development firm building on the blockchain, its flagship project is the Polkadot blockchain, referred to as a Layer 0 by its founders.
Also making the jump from traditional finance to DeFi is Lionel Sukhram, who joins Point72 Asset Management as a digital assets senior professional. Sukhram, a Robinhood alum, got his start in banking at Goldman Sachs before moving to Morgan Stanley.
It’s not the first time in recent history Point72 has expanded its crypto team. In September the asset manager brought on Pantera Capital’s Terence Schofield as head of digital assets technology.
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