Ben Strack

<div id="highlights-block_6311ddb986884" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Law firm Brown Rudnick adds four partners for its digital commerce practice</li>
 <li>Crypto exchange Rain Financial and social media company Snap reveal layoffs</li>
 </ul>
 
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Crypto-focused financial services firm EQONEX appointed a chief investment officer and head of investment research with extensive traditional finance backgrounds.&nbsp;



CIO <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/simon-goodman-b46426/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Simon Goodman</a> most recently co-founded crypto investment firm PSG Digital and blockchain digital asset allocator Peregrine. Earlier in his career, the executive spent more than 15 years building out hedge fund Marshall Wace&#8217;s presence in Asia. 



Investment Research Head <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-nudel-3744275b/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Benjamin Nudel</a> previously spent nine years in investment banking at HSBC, Société Générale and BNP Paribas.



The hires to boost the company’s asset management business come after EQONEX <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/eqonex-latest-to-leave-crowded-crypto-exchange-space/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">revealed last month</a> that it would close its crypto exchange to focus more on its asset management and cryptocurrency custody business lines.



Blockchain privacy startup Nym named Andrés Arauz, a former director of Ecuador’s central bank and 2021 presidential candidate, as an advisor.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Nym is a decentralized platform that protects privacy at the network level of any application, wallet or digital service — including against traffic pattern analysis and metadata surveillance.



While leading the Central Bank of Ecuador, Arauz <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666143821000107" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">in 2011 headed</a> the first pilot of a central bank digital currency, which was fully deployed in 2014.



“For too long, countries across the world have been subjected to cybercolonialism and mass surveillance of their financial transactions,” Nym Technologies CEO Harry Halpin said in a statement. “While El Salvador’s adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender is an interesting initial experiment, we’re happy Arauz has joined Nym to help develop an even more ambitious plan for financial freedom and privacy across Latin America.”



Galaxy Digital has hired <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewlace/?originalSubdomain=uk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Andrew Lace</a> as a vice president of institutional sales within its trading division, a company spokesperson confirmed. 



Lace joins the company from Elwood Technologies, where he was a sales director since July 2021. He has also previously worked at London Stock Exchange Group, Refinitiv and Thomson Reuters.



Galaxy CEO Mike Novogratz said during the company’s earnings call last month that there was “selective shrinking” of the Galaxy team during a second quarter, in which it <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/galaxy-digitals-stock-rises-despite-posting-555m-q2-net-loss/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">suffered a $555 million net loss</a>. Still, he added at the time that Galaxy intends to increase its headcount from 375 to more than 400 staffers by the end of the year. 



Law firm Brown Rudnick has added <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephendpalley/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Stephen Palley</a>, Matthew Richardson, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/prestonbyrne/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Preston Byrne</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/haileylennon/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Hailey Lennon</a> as partners in its digital commerce practice. They are joined by associate Jeff Karas.



The four new partners join from law firm Anderson Kill. Palley, who was founder and chair of the technology, media and distributed systems group there, is set to co-chair Brown Rudnick’s digital commerce practice with Clara Krivoy.



“Our clients are increasingly in the digital asset space as founders, investors, or traditional corporate entities looking to use technologies such as blockchain and cryptocurrencies as part of their business,” Brown Rudnick CEO Vince Guglielmotti said in a statement. “This team of supremely talented lawyers brings the type of insights and skills that will benefit our clients by enhancing our ability to offer an end-to-end experience, particularly for those in the technology space.”



Rain Financial, a crypto exchange in the Middle East, has cut staff to reflect “operational needs and market conditions,” <a href="https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/coinbase-backed-crypto-firm-rain-financial-cuts-jobs-1.1813256" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bloomberg reported</a> Thursday.



The company raised $110 million in January from Paradigm, Kleiner Perkins, Coinbase Ventures and other investors. It did not reveal the number of workers it slashed.&nbsp;



<a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/snap-web3-team-apparent-victim-of-20-downsize/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">In case you missed it</a>, Snap revealed this week it would be cutting about 20% of its workers as it seeks to restructure the company to reduce costs. Some of those staff were focused on the social media company’s Web3 initiatives.



Most recently working as a research and development program manager for Snap, Jake Sheinman said in a tweet Wednesday that the company decided to “sunset” the Web3 team he co-founded last year.



Though augmented reality is one of three strategic priorities for Snap going forward, sources familiar with the company’s efforts told Blockworks that early Web3-related projects didn’t contribute to that focus. Only a few people were involved in exploring Web3 at Snap, the sources added.



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Brown Rudnick

Latest in Crypto Hiring: Crypto Firm Taps TradFi Vets For Asset Management Business

<div id="highlights-block_631107eb59aa2" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Snap is restructuring its business to focus on community growth, revenue growth and augmented reality</li>
 <li>Layoffs come after Snap reported a net loss of $422 million during the second quarter</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Snap appears to have axed its Web3 team as part of the social media company’s decision to restructure and cut its headcount by about 20%.&nbsp;



Jake Sheinman revealed in a tweet Wednesday that it was his last day at Snap. Most recently working as a research and development program manager, he first joined the company as an account specialist in December 2018, according to <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakesheinman/details/experience/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">his LinkedIn profile</a>.&nbsp;



“As a result of the company restructure, decisions were made to sunset our [Web3] team,” Sheinman tweeted. “The same team that I co-founded last year with other pirates who believed in digital ownership and the role that [augmented reality] can play to support that.”&nbsp;



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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">I&#39;m humbled to have partnered with the smartest builders, most creative artists, and kindest humans. Today was tough and I&#39;ll miss this place dearly but I&#39;m grateful for all of it. Will be taking some personal time in the coming weeks but open to discuss new opportunities 💛 2/2&mdash; Jake Sheinman (@jakeryanshein) <a href="https://twitter.com/jakeryanshein/status/1565093703902846976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 31, 2022</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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Sheinman and Snap did not immediately return a request for comment.



While Web3 wasn&#8217;t explicitly mentioned, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel said in a Wednesday <a href="https://newsroom.snap.com/restructuring-and-refocusing-our-business" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">blog</a> post that investments Snap made to various business lines were under the assumption of a higher rate of revenue growth. The Snapchat community doubled in size since the company’s initial public offering in 2017 and the company’s trailing twelve month revenue has gone up 10 times since then, he added.



But despite seeing a 13% year-over-year revenue increase to about $1.1 billion during the second quarter, <a href="https://investor.snap.com/news/news-details/2022/Snap-Inc.-Announces-Second-Quarter-2022-Financial-Results/default.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Snap reported</a> a net loss of $422 million during the three-month span.&nbsp;



Somewhat surprisingly, Snap stock is up 16% since Tuesday&#8217;s close, while the tech-heavy NASDAQ 100 has slipped more than 1%.



“Unfortunately, given our current lower rate of revenue growth, it has become clear that we must reduce our cost structure to avoid incurring significant ongoing losses,” the CEO wrote on Wednesday. “We are restructuring our business to increase focus on our three strategic priorities: community growth, revenue growth, and augmented reality.”



Sheinman said on LinkedIn that he was on Snap’s emerging mobile apps team, where he supported fintech and crypto companies — such as Coinbase, Cash App, Dave, and <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/robinhood-lays-off-23-of-staff-a-day-before-earnings-report/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Robinhood</a> — to acquire new users. He later helped start Snap’s Web3 team within its product development and research division, he added.&nbsp;



Snap was exploring plans to allow users to show off NFTs on its app, the Financial Times <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/d6a89a18-4ad4-415a-a810-0ca1668cddc9" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a> in July. Creators were reportedly set to start testing the feature at the end of August, though it is unclear whether that process began.



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