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Crypto Exec Moves — 02.2026

A curated selection of hires and promotions from across crypto. If you would like to sign up to receive this newsletter, please visit our website.

We’re Following

Shortest month of the year, longest list of headlines. 🫠 Between geopolitical intrigue, executive musical chairs and one of the greatest U.S. hockey moments of all time — albeit short-lived given the political fallout🥇 — February did not come to play.

Let’s start with the plot twists. Meta is finally reviving its stablecoin effort after famously moonlighting Diem (fka Libra) in 2019. Rumors are flying, but after their bruising battle to launch their own stablecoin back in the day, it appears they may be tapping Stripe/Bridge as their integration partner. Not nearly as dubious as the NYT report on Binance firing employees tied to sanctioned jurisdictions, but we’re still adding it to the list of headlines that surprised us this month.

In stablecoin land, things were anything but quiet. Anchorage Digital and Tether announced a collaboration tied to U.S.-regulated stablecoin infrastructure just before Tether shared a $100M+ strategic investment in the former, reminding everyone that stablecoin issuers aren’t just issuing, they’re allocating. 🤹Hey, if Hillary Duff can do it all, why not Tether too?

Kraken expanded its footprint 👣 with DeFi Earn rolling out across the U.S., EU and Canada, bringing yield-bearing vault access further into the mainstream retail stack. TRM Labs raised a major Series C, hitting unicorn status with Goldman backing — yet another reminder that blockchain analytics is no longer niche infrastructure, but table stakes. The institutionalization arc? Very much still intact. 📈

Bringing things back to our Meta stablecoin throwback — David Marcus resurfaced with pointed reflections on PayPal’s evolution, just as CNBC reported on PayPal stock moves tied to Stripe acquisition chatter. Who knows what lies ahead, but we’re always down for an old guard x new guard reunion. 👯‍♂️

Cheers,

The Intersection Crew

We’re Tracking

a16z: Noah Levine joined as an Investment Partner. Noah was previously an Onchain Strategy & Data Lead at Visa.

Augustus International: Joe Schenone joined as Chief Financial Officer. Joe was previously Chief Financial Officer at SmartBiz. Thank you to Ferdinand Dabitz and Emily Gawlik for entrusting us with this critical search.

Blockaid: Ajit Deshpande joined as Head of Marketing. Ajit was previously VP, Growth Marketing at Circle.

Chainalysis: Sebastien Giroux joined as Chief Financial Officer. Sebastien was previously Chief Financial Officer at Productboard.

Chase: Adam Carson joined as MD, Corporate Development, Digital Assets & Crypto Strategy and Partnerships. Adam was previously a Fintech & Crypto Investor at Point72 Ventures.

Coinbase: Scott Meadows was promoted to Sr. Director, Head of Business Development.

DWF Labs: Ryan Spencer joined as Head of Business Development, OTC. Ryan was previously Head of Sales & Business Development at Sunscreen.

Ethereum Foundation: Ivan (ivangbi) joined as DeFi Coordinator. Ivan was previously a Cofounder of Gearbox Protocol. Charles St.Louis joined as DeFi Protocol Specialist. Charles was previously Chief Executive Officer at DELV. Tomasz Stańczak stepped down as Co-Executive Director.

Foundation Capital: Matthew Nay joined as a Partner, Crypto. Matthew was previously a Research Analyst at Messari. Thank you to Rodolfo Gonzalez and Alejandra Martinez for your partnership on this search.

Gemini: Marshall Beard departed as Chief Operating Officer, Dan Chen departed as Chief Financial Officer and Tyler Meade departed as Chief Legal Officer.

Grayscale: Jonathan St. Jacques joined as Head of West Coast Institutions. Jonathan was previously Head of Investor Relations & Capital Formation at BITKRAFT Ventures. Greg Kaufmann joined as VP, Head of East Coast Institutional Sales. Greg was previously an Investor Solutions Lead at Cantor Fitzgerald.

JP Morgan: Naveen Mallela departed as Global Co-Head Kinexys.

Kraken: Josh Fagen joined as VP, Finance & Investor Relations. Josh was previously Head of Investor Relations & COO of Finance at Pagaya. John Palmer joined as Global Head of Derivatives. John was previously Head of Cross Asset Product at IEX. Stephanie Lemmerman stepped down as Chief Financial Officer. Stephanie has transitioned to an advisory role.

LayerZero Labs: Steven Ebert joined as VP, Marketing. Steven was previously a Brand Strategist at Clay. Thank you to Rich Dietrich for partnering with us on this critical search.

Monad Foundation: Urvit Goel joined as VP, GTM. Urvit was previously VP, Head of Global Business Development at the Optimism Foundation.

Multiliquid: Michal Benedykcinski joined as Chief Commercial Officer. Michal was previously an SVP at Arca.

Ondo Finance: Katie Wheeler was promoted from VP, Partnerships to MD, Global Partnerships.

Polychain: Josh Rosenthal was promoted from General Partner to President.

Robinhood: Adam Fern joined as Head of Product, Onchain & DeFi. Adam was previously a Cofounder and Product Lead at Proof of Play. Gaëtan Thabot joined as Director, Crypto Partnerships. Gaëtan was previously VP, Sales & Partnerships at Reown. Zeke Vince joined as Global Head of Business Development, Institutional Crypto. Zeke was previously Head of Sales at B2C2.

Securitize: Chongwu Du was promoted from Head of Strategy to Chief Strategy Officer.

Stripe: Ravi Adusumilli joined as Chief Revenue Officer, Money Management. Ravi was previously President & GM, Americas at Airwallex. Christina Beltramini joined as a Global Crypto Partnerships Lead. Christina was previously VP, Business Development & Corporate Development at Aave Labs.

Superstate: Michael Roberto joined as Head of Fund Operations. Michael was previously Senior Accountant, Revenue at MoonPay. Thank you to Robert Leshner and Dean Swennumson for your partnership on this search.

U.S. SEC: Taylor Lindman joined as Chief Counsel, Crypto Task Force. Taylor was previously Deputy General Counsel at Chainlink Labs.

Veda: Matthias Broner joined as VP, Marketing. Matthias was previously Interim Chief Marketing Officer at Matter Labs. Thank you to Veda’s CEO, Sun Raghupathi, for entrusting us with this critical search.

Founded in 2018, Intersection Growth Partners is the leading crypto-native executive search firm. We connect our clients with world-class talent and invest our own capital for true alignment.