Crypto Hiring: Securitize, Galaxy, Hashdex add leaders

Securitize, Galaxy, and Hashdex each made significant leadership appointments this week as momentum continues to build across the crypto industry.

Michael Sonnenshein became the chief operating officer of Securitize, the tokenization platform revealed this week. He had departed crypto asset manager Grayscale in May. 

Read more: Ex-Grayscale CEO shifts focus to tokenization

Securitize is perhaps best known for helping BlackRock tokenize its USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) in March. Backed by US Treasurys, the fund quickly grew to manage more than $500 million in assets. 

Sonnenshein told Blockworks in a Thursday interview that bringing real-world assets onchain is “one of the most exciting frontiers in the broader blockchain and digital assets space.”

While tokenized fiat currencies (aka stablecoins) are well-established, US Treasurys are the collateral serving as the “substrate” for many capital markets transactions, Sonnenshein said. 

Read more: ‘Growing investor appetite’ in tokenized fund space: UBS

“Continuing to build products that can address some of the inefficiencies and…move into offerings where the underlying assets are not dollars, but instead yield-bearing assets, I think is a very, very attractive value proposition,” he added.

Galaxy also named Tony Paquette as its chief financial officer. He takes over for Alex Ioffe, who is set to move to a senior adviser role at the firm on Jan. 1.

Paquette most recently held the CFO title at hedge fund firm Point72. 

Earlier in his career, he worked in Bank of America’s Corporate Investments Group and Treasury division, and held a head of funding and liability management role at JPMorgan Chase. Paquette then went on to oversee fintech company SoFi’s treasury, market risk, and regulatory and financial operations. 

In another notable people move this week, crypto-focused investment firm Hashdex appointed Mick McLaughlin as US head of distribution. His responsibilities will include growing the company’s US crypto ETFs.

McLaughlin was formerly chief distribution officer at rival crypto asset manager Bitwise Asset Management. He also previously led Americas ETF distribution for Deutsche Bank and spent over a decade building the iShares business at BlackRock and Barclays.

Meanwhile, Ethereum researcher Max Resnick announced his move to the Solana ecosystem, where he will join the research and development firm Anza after previously working at Consensys subsidiary Special Mechanisms Group.

“In my first 100 days, I plan on writing a spec for as much of the Solana protocol as I can get to, prioritizing fee markets and consensus implementations where I believe I can have the highest impact,” Resnick wrote in a Dec. 9 X post.

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