November 2025 marked a robust hiring period in the cryptocurrency sector, with exchanges, payments firms, and infrastructure teams bolstering leadership, per The Block and Intersection Growth Partners. Coinbase led with high-profile additions: Shannon Kurtas as Head of Coinbase Advanced from Kraken, Liz Martin as VP Product for Derivatives from Goldman Sachs, and creative hires Gareth Kay and Joe Staples from agencies, signaling a push into sophisticated trading and branding, per. Circle strengthened compliance with Wyatt Robinson from Microsoft and ecosystem growth via Erika Peterson from BlackRock, per. These moves highlight institutional-grade talent flowing into crypto.
Venture firms and payments players expanded aggressively. Wintermute added four senior roles, including David Micley for U.S. BD and Matthew Pizzo as Chief Compliance Officer. Visa recruited Matt Austin from Ripple for crypto BD, while MoonPay tapped Zach Kwartler from Paxos as Head of Stablecoins. Variant onboarded Caleb Shack from Arch Network as Investment Partner, and a16z crypto promoted Guy Wuollet to General Partner, per. Deel elevated Thierry Edde to Head of Crypto, reflecting payments firms’ deepening crypto integration.
Promotions underscored internal growth: Blockchain.com named Lane Kasselman Co-CEO, QuickNode shifted Jason Hunt to Chief Revenue Officer, and Zcash Foundation advanced Pili Guerra to Head of Engineering and Danika Delano to COO, per. The CFTC nominated Michael Selig as Chairman, a potential boost for crypto regulation, per. Tether reportedly added Vincent Domien and Mathew O’Neill for gold-backed reserves expansion, per Bloomberg. These shifts signal maturing ecosystems, with Bitcoin-native and ZK projects like Morpho hiring Tarik Bellamine from Uniswap Labs.
The talent influx from tradfi (Goldman, Microsoft, BlackRock) and big tech into product, legal, BD, and compliance roles points to institutional maturation. With Bitcoin at $78,662 and Ethereum at $2,322 rebounding, per The Block, these hires position firms for 2026 roadmaps in DeFi, stablecoins, and tokenization, per. Risks include regulatory uncertainty and volatility, but the bipartisan crypto bill push could accelerate growth. Investors should watch ETF inflows and on-chain metrics via CryptoQuant.
