LONDON — The CEO of cryptocurrency trade Luno is stepping apart and handing the reins to its head of operations, the corporate introduced Wednesday.
It comes as Luno’s guardian firm, crypto-focused enterprise capital agency Digital Forex Group, continues to reel from turmoil within the crypto market. Luno additionally just lately laid off 35% of its world workforce.
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Marcus Swanepoel, a South African former banker who based Luno in 2013 with the goal of bringing crypto to the lots, will quit his CEO title after 10 years to change into government chairman, the corporate mentioned in a press launch Wednesday.
James Lanigan, Luno’s chief working officer, will take over the reins as Luno’s new CEO. Lanigan joined Luno in 2018 and beforehand served as chief advertising officer for the restaurant reservation platform TheFork, previously Bookatable.
As government chairman, Swanepoel will spend much less time within the day-to-day operating of Luno, as a substitute working with Lanigan and administration to information technique and concentrate on broadening Luno’s investor base, the corporate mentioned.
In a press release, Swanepoel mentioned he was “excited for our subsequent chapter as we proceed to place the facility of crypto in everybody’s fingers.”
“The chance for crypto is larger and brighter than ever, and James is a seasoned operator and an excellent chief with a observe file of success throughout all elements of operating a really world fintech enterprise.”
Luno mentioned it has additionally employed funding banking agency Canaccord Genuity Group to assist it elevate new funding from exterior buyers. It marks the primary time the corporate is opening as much as new buyers since being acquired by DCG in 2020.
Luno will goal to boost cash from buyers aside from DCG to assist it increase internationally, acquire market share, and put together for an eventual itemizing, Luno mentioned within the press launch.
DCG, Luno’s guardian firm, has been grappling with the continuing fallout from final 12 months’s plunge in token costs and the collapse of FTX, the controversial trade whose failure in November sparked a sequence of bankruptcies within the trade.
Inside DCG’s sprawling portfolio of crypto holdings, digital forex lender Genesis filed for chapter safety owing collectors no less than $three billion, whereas Grayscale, the most important crypto asset administration agency, faces questions over its publicity to FTX and the widening low cost its bitcoin funding belief trades at relative to the underlying asset.
CoinDesk, the DCG-owned crypto information outlet, employed funding financial institution Lazard to discover a possible sale, CNBC beforehand reported.
A DCG spokesperson insisted Swanepoel’s job transfer was unrelated to the difficulties confronted by Luno’s guardian firm and had been within the works for 12 months. Transitioning from CEO to government chairman is a “widespread path for founder CEOs,” the spokesperson added.
“Having first invested in Luno’s seed spherical in 2014 adopted by an acquisition in 2020, we need to thank Marcus for his dynamic management and enduring enthusiasm for the worldwide crypto panorama as he remodeled Luno right into a digital asset powerhouse,” Barry Silbert, DCG’s founder and CEO, mentioned in a press release Wednesday.
Swanepoel’s resolution to step down as CEO caps off a litany of unhealthy information surrounding Luno. The London-based agency, which has workplaces in Africa, Southeast Asia and Europe, laid off 35% of its workforce in January, citing market turbulence. The corporate additionally misplaced its co-founder and chief know-how officer, Timothy Stranex, in December.
Regardless of the ache the trade has endured, digital currencies have proven indicators of a restoration this 12 months. Bitcoin is up 70% because the begin of the 12 months and is at the moment buying and selling above $28,000 for the primary time in 9 months. Ether, the second-biggest token, has risen 50% year-to-date and is now value $1,800 apiece.
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