Ben Strack

<div id="highlights-block_62a39bb7f56e7" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>BKCoin makes three hires, including poaching a former Coinbase executive</li>
 <li>Crypto-focused RIA taps ex-Celsius Network pro as chief operating officer</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Market-neutral crypto hedge fund firm BKCoin Capital hired Paul Magahis as president, Adriano Caloiaro as chief technology officer and Leanna Haakons as director of business development and investor relations.



Magahis is set to join the investment committee and oversee BKCoin’s corporate strategy, fundraising and operations. He most recently worked as Coinbase’s head of capital strategy, and before that was the global co-head of capital introduction at StoneX Group.



Caloiaro joins from enterprise talent acquisition software provider Greenhouse Software, while Haakons previously co-founded financial marketing and consulting firm Black Hawk Financial in 2014.&nbsp;



Crypto-focused registered investment advisor Khelp Financial appointed Steve Goeke as chief operating officer and Paul Lang as head of portfolio construction and risk.



Goeke was working at Truist Securities as a director in the firm’s capital markets group and helped corporate clients manage interest rate, foreign exchange and commodity markets risk. He has also held roles in derivatives, foreign exchange and credit at Regions Capital Markets and JPMorgan.&nbsp;



Lang joins from Celsius Network, where he focused on coin allocation and risk-managed strategies. Before that, he worked as a macro-focused portfolio manager at UBS.



Ethereum scaling platform Polygon has hired Bhumika Srivastava as its new global head of human relations.&nbsp;



The new executive was formerly the head of human relations at Airbnb. Srivastava’s other previous experiences with major Web2 brands, such as Snapdeal, Adobe and Yahoo, will be crucial in supporting Polygon’s growth, the company said in a statement.



In an interview with Blockworks, Sanket Shah, Polygon’s head of strategy said the company will continue hiring.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“We are not letting the bearish landscape deter us from fostering growth. It makes sense to continue growing our teams in a sustainable manner, for both the short and long term, so we can build a Web3 platform that is ready for the future.” </blockquote>



Ryu Games named Rick Ellis as chief product officer, as the hire came alongside the company’s <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/ryu-games-announces-flame-steam-172800474.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">beta launch</a> of Flame, a new Web3 games store and marketplace seeking to better serve the PC gaming market with non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and cryptocurrencies.



Ellis, who founded video game digital distribution service Steam, will tap his experience in console, PC and mobile gaming development to drive the growth of Web3 in gaming, the company said in a statement.



Investment firm CoinFund has hired Margaret Gabriel as head of talent, a role in which she will work to find talent for CoinFund itself but also for its portfolio companies to help them strategically invest in and grow their own teams. Gabriel is an alumna of Google and Gemini.



In case you missed it, Grayscale Investments <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/grayscale-investments-hires-ex-us-solicitor-general/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">hired former US Solicitor General</a> Donald B. Verrilli, Jr. as a senior legal strategist. The hire comes as the crypto-focused asset manager is trying to convert its beleaguered bitcoin trust to an ETF, a proposal the SEC is expected to rule on next month.



Before working as solicitor general from 2011 to 2016, Verrilli served as deputy counsel to President Barack Obama and was an associate deputy attorney general in the US Department of Justice.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Crypto drawdown’s impact on hiring?</h3>



Despite crypto companies such as <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/coinbase-latest-crypto-firm-to-cut-costs-amid-market-downturn/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Coinbase</a> and <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/gemini-joins-growing-list-of-crypto-exchanges-cutting-staff-amid-downturn/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Gemini</a> revealing plans last week to slow hiring or make cuts, other firms continue to expand.



Crypto exchange Binance, for example, is currently hiring more than 500 employees globally across departments, a spokesperson told Blockworks, adding cooler markets offer the best opportunity to invest in or acquire great projects for less money.&nbsp;



“Our business strategy was to position Binance for sustained growth over the next decade through multiple market downturns or even a prolonged multi-year declining market,” the spokesperson said.&nbsp;



FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried <a href="https://twitter.com/SBF_FTX/status/1533946713366568962" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweeted</a> Monday that the crypto exchange would “keep pushing forward” on its hiring efforts, despite the downturn. 



“More will be joining than leaving, though — as always — we&#8217;ll make sure to add people at a sustainable rate,” he said.



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Latest in Crypto Hiring: Hedge Fund Makes Hires, FTX Adds While Rivals Cut

Michael Bodley

<div id="highlights-block_621909b75a046" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Bitcoin and ether both plunged more than 10% on Thursday before recovering to notch modest 24-hour gains</li>
 <li>Crypto funding behind the conflict raises the possibility of quicker regulation, industry participants say</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



While the crisis in Ukraine roils global equity and digital asset markets, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are increasingly seen as risk assets in the eyes of institutional traders.



Recent shocks have <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/bitcoins-plunge-on-ukraine-invasion-undermines-status-as-digital-gold/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">hindered the premise</a> of bitcoin as digital gold, or a store of value — its standing as a bellwether investment in times of turmoil has likewise been called into question.



Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, including ether, plunged more than 10% Thursday as the Russian incursion into Ukraine started, before bouncing back to book modest gains on the day. Digital assets also continued to rise Friday as traders appeared to shake off the impact of medium- and longer-term implications of the invasion.



Kevin Kang, co-founder of digital asset hedge fund firm BKCoin Capital, attributed the recovery to “short covering and equities recovering earlier losses.”



Indeed, bitcoin has traded in near tandem with stocks as of late. Wary of the correlation, big-time traders have largely stayed on the sidelines of the latest market moves, according to Rance Masheck, CEO of trading platform <a href="https://www.ivestplus.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">iVest Plus</a>.



“Overall, [crypto] moved with the way the US market moved,” Masheck said. “Some of it came back, just like the market came back, but the big players aren’t jumping in or bailing out.”



iVest data show a decline of about 50% in bitcoin trades over $100,000 from the same time last week — plus, the firm recorded a net outflow of a modest $19 million, indicating few directional bets.&nbsp;



Bitcoin was up 9.6% in the last 24 hours as of midday Friday, while showing a weekly decline of -2.9%. Ether, meanwhile, increased 10.7% in the last day, paring week-long losses to -5.6%.&nbsp;



Volatility shows few signs of slowing.



“Historically, the day of the invasion marked a local bottom in the market as uncertainty dissipates, but there are a lot of talks about how Russia may be just starting and may go into Poland and other near NATO nations, which will put the US in a limbo,” Kang said. “There are still a lot of uncertainties in the market. We expect the volatility to continue.”&nbsp;



Brian Brooks, CEO of bitcoin mining and crypto technology company Bitfury, said bitcoin is trading as it should in a risk-off environment where investors “are going to retreat to Treasurys and cash for a short period of time.”



Other macro factors are at play behind recent market volatility, too, he said — including looming tax bills on the horizon that traders may not have budgeted for. A recent drying up of liquidity hasn’t necessarily helped matters either.



“Even though bitcoin in part has an element of store of value to it, it’s still thinly traded enough that it’s acting more like a risk asset,” Brooks said. “Other than bitcoin, the right way to think about crypto tokens is they’re risky internet stocks — and internet stocks are way down.”



Meanwhile, the growing prospect of rising interest rates in the US — expected as a means to tamp down runaway inflation — is likewise weighing on crypto markets, according to David Tawil, president of cryptocurrency hedge fund firm ProChain Capital. Ongoing supply chain jams are also roiling traditional financial instruments and digital assets, Tawil said.



“Clearly, the downdraft in the asset class has been because the dominant feature has been, essentially, a growth-tech story, a risk-on asset,” Tawil said. “Therefore, when we get into a risk-off environment, it’s going to trade down, including inflation, rising rates and now geopolitical instability.”



The Ukraine tensions also raise the possibility of sanctioned Russian oligarchs turning to crypto to transfer money as banks have cut them off, Masheck said — as well as the government itself tapping digital assets to circumvent traditional finance. It heightens the prospect of US regulators taking a faster pace as both Ukraine and <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/as-russia-tests-digital-ruble-plans-for-broader-crypto-regulation-are-uncertain/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Russia</a> have moved to legalize and regulate the space.



“Obviously, those sanctions will have some level of impact, but crypto allows for a little bit of a circumvention of some of that,” he said.



Masheck and Brooks both expect bitcoin to behave less like a risk asset and lose its correlation to stocks as the asset evolves.



“As we move forward here, I think we’ll start to see more of a divergence between what US markets are doing and what’s happening in crypto,” Masheck said.



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Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire">Subscribe to the Empire newsletter</a>.



Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/onthemargin">Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter</a>.



Get alpha directly in your inbox with the <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/research">0xResearch newsletter</a> — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.



The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed">Subscribe to daily Solana news</a> from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.