Institutional hiring stayed busy in June as exchanges, asset managers, and Layer 1 foundations shored up senior benches. Coinbase, Circle, and Invesco all tapped veterans from Cash App, Meta, and JPMorgan, while Bullish, Flipside, and newcomer Moku stacked commercial firepower for the next growth leg. Infra names DRW and Axelar bulked up on BD, and the Solana Foundation added a dedicated institutional lead for Europe.
Regulators and incumbents also moved the pieces: the SEC filled two division-head vacancies, Parity logged a senior exit, and Polygon handed out a top-table promotion. Through-line: firms want operators who can translate crypto-native rails for traditional capital and partnerships.
BNY Mellon brought in Patrick Corker as managing director, digital assets. He was previously the chief business officer at Lukka.
Bullish hired Andrew Stief as VP, head of marketing. He previously led global marketing at Kraken — the same role he now also holds at CoinDesk.
At Circle, Irfan Ganchi joined as SVP, product management, after nearly four years at Meta. Evan Piwowarski came on as senior director, product marketing from Kraken.
Coinbase added Ben Shen as head of financial services and loyalty products. He was previously at Cash App.
Glenn Barber joined DRW as head of Canton business development, following his time as global head of revenue growth at Lukka.
Flipside named Natallia Hunik chief revenue officer. She previously held the same title at CubeLogic.
Inversion brought on Suzanne Dannheim as chief operating officer. She previously led digital assets initiatives at Goldman Sachs.
Invesco appointed Kathleen Wrynn as global head of digital assets. She was the executive director of global tech strategy at JPMorgan.
At Nexus, Benjamin Richman stepped in as VP, digital assets. He was previously managing director, digital currency at Silvergate.
Ben Brophy joined the Solana Foundation as head of institutional growth, Europe. He was previously head of blockchain at Fidelity.
Kathleen Osgood joined Moku as chief business officer. She was previously at Jump Crypto and Sky Mavis, and will lead institutional capital strategy and ecosystem partnerships as the company expands on Ronin and beyond.
The SEC named Jamie Selway director of the division of trading and markets, while Brian Daly will join as director of investment management. Selway was most recently at Sophron Advisors; Daly is coming from Akin Gump.
Joe Burnett joined Semler Scientific as director of Bitcoin strategy. He was previously director of market research at Unchained and, before that, head analyst and product manager at Blockware Solutions.
At Polygon Labs, Mudit Gupta was promoted to CTO. He previously held the role of chief information security officer.
Christopher Robins was promoted to head of growth and strategic partnerships at Interop Labs / Axelar, after previously serving as the firm’s head of institutional.
Jamie Finn joined the Sei Development Foundation as an advisor. He was a cofounder and president at Securitize.
Coinbase also brought on David Plouffe, a former advisor to President Obama, as an advisor.
Chrissy Hill resigned from Parity Technologies, where she had served as interim COO and chief legal officer.