Binance.US adds a former FBI agent to lead the investigation

Binance.US employed former FBI agent BJ Kang as its first investigative leader to build the company’s internal investigative infrastructure.

The executive is set to work with US law enforcement, regulators and industry peers to reduce crypto-related criminal activity on the platform.

After spending nearly two decades with the FBI, Kang spent the past seven years in Washington with the agency’s cybercrime task force — where he investigated insider trading and online money laundering, plus hackers targeting both crypto and TradFi firms.

“Close coordination between the crypto industry and relevant law enforcement agencies to identify and punish bad actors is necessary to increase trust and enable the crypto ecosystem to continue to grow,” Kang said in a statement.

Reuters reported last month that US authorities were investigating whether Binance violated the Bank Secrecy Act, which established reporting requirements for banks and other financial institutions around anti-money laundering. A spokesperson told Blockworks that the company works with regulators regularly to address such inquiries.

Binance.US has increased the number of employees in its legal, compliance and risk units by 145% in the past year. It hired former Intel Corporation CEO Sidney Majalya and former Société Générale executive Tammy Weinrib as chief risk officer and chief compliance officer, respectively, over this period.

JPMorgan Chase added a digital asset regulatory policy executive this month, despite CEO Jamie Dimon’s continued jabs at the general direction of all things crypto.

Aaron Iovine spent the past eight months as head of policy and regulatory affairs at Celsius, the crypto lender that filed for bankruptcy in July, according to his LinkedIn.

Iovine and a JPMorgan spokeswoman did not return requests for comment.

Dimon, meanwhile, called crypto tokens “decentralized Ponzi schemes” in congressional testimony last month.

Job postings signal the company isn’t done hiring — usually, at least — as JPMorgan seeks a New York-based digital asset adviser.

Digital asset platform maintain employee Christopher Siedentopf as head of research sales.

The executive is set to oversee the deployment of Uphold’s institutional crypto research and has also been tasked with uncovering clients for its digital asset execution platform.

Siedentopf comes from Börse Stuttgart Børs, where he led institutional sales. He previously worked in similar sales roles for Deutsche Bank and Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Venture capital firms add talent

Richard Rosenblatt joined a16z as senior advisor for Web3 media. The sector has recently increasingly been a focus area for the deep venture capital firm.

Rosenblatt founded several media and technology companies, including iMall, Intermix/Myspace, and Demand Media. He is also the chairman of ADIM and Autograph – two a16z crypto portfolio companies.

Chris Dixon, an a16z general partner, said in a Monday blog that large, centralized social networks, and their advertising business models, have taken a toll on creators and media.

“As we continue to invest in entrepreneurs and startups that look to shape this web3 future, we want to bring some of the leaders at the heart of the media, entertainment and content creation industries,” Dixon said. “I’m excited about it [Rosenblatt] will now be an invaluable resource for our portfolio companies.”

BITKRAFT Ventures promoted Carlos Pereira to partner to lead the firm’s investments at the intersection of Web3 and gaming.

He will be tasked with connecting with company founders and helping BITKRAFT Ventures’ portfolio companies navigate the complexities of the nascent sector.

Pereira, who previously worked at investment firm Eldridge, said he met BITKRAFT’s founders in 2018.

“I am honored to step forward and lead our efforts at Web3, which has quickly become a major talent vortex of amazing entrepreneurs who are building a new foundation for how complex communities can thrive online,” Pereira said in a statement.

Crypto venture capital firm 1k(x) has taken on a former ETP issuer manager as its newest partner.

Diana Biggs was most recently head of strategy at Valour, as well as managing director of the company’s digital asset ETP business. Before that, Biggs held the title of global head of innovation for HSBC’s private bank.

1k(x) has more than 80 crypto and Web3 companies in its portfolio and typically invests between $250,000 and $20 million in early-stage projects.

In a statement, Biggs said her new employer has “pioneered” both crypto-native and “community-first” investing, and played a key role in her decision to join.

Blockchain Capital added Alan Curtis as head of platform and Caleb Tebbe as principal research engineer.

Curtis and Tebbe join the venture capital firm from Core Scientific, where they were chief technology officer and senior vice president of product and engineering, respectively.

The two also co-founded blockchain technology company Radar, sold last year to crypto miner Blockcap. Blockchain has previously invested in Radar.

“We led two rounds of funding, sat on their board and completed a successful acquisition together,” Blockchain co-founder Bart Stephens said in a statement. “Now we’re ready to invest in them again, this time as investors, as they build out our platform and engineering teams.”

Appointments

Fidelity Digital Assets expects to add around 100 more people to the team over the next three to six months, according to Chris Tyrer, head of Fidelity Digital Asset Management and Fidelity Digital Assets Europe.

The comments, which came during a panel at Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit in London on Tuesday, come after the company revealed in May that it was looking to double its headcount by the end of the year by adding 210 people.

Tyrer said the hiring landscape in the space looked very different a year ago during the crypto bull run.

“We lost people in terms of job offers to some tech companies that were willing and able to pay over the odds,” he said. “I think it’s definitely calmed down, so now … hiring has gotten a lot easier, but I think it will change again in the future.”

Hong Kong based crypto asset manager Xalts aims to have eight employees by the end of the month and looks to increase its headcount to 30 people by the end of the year, eFinancialCareers reported.

Ashutosh Goel, a former fixed-income trader at HSBC, co-founded Xalts in July with former Meta CEO Supreet Kaur. Citi Ventures and Accel co-led a $6 million venture round earlier this month, according to Bloomberg.

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