Popular cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is amidst internal tension as some of the senior executives and several employees have decided to leave the company following CEO Brian Armstrong’s decision to follow an ‘apolitical’ culture stance.
According to a recent report, several people familiar with the matter have noted that the firm’s chief compliance officer Jeff Horowitz is now set to leave Coinbase.
Horowitz joined Coinbase back in 2018 after serving at firms like Lehman Brothers and Citigroup. He became Coinbase’s first CCO and has played a major role in establishing the exchange’s anti-money laundering policies as well as its compliance with recommendations from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
However, his departure supposedly has nothing to do with Armstrong’s controversial blog post from earlier this month. The company’s recent stance has been responsible for about 5% of employees exiting the exchange.
Talking about Horowitz’s upcoming departure, a spokesperson of the company said:
“Since joining the company in mid 2018, Jeff played an active role in helping to shape crypto and AML regulation with FATF, FinCEN, Dept. of Treasury and regulators around the globe. We’re grateful for his service and wish him the best in the future. While we conduct a search for a new CCO, our Chief Legal Officer, Paul Grewal, will take over day-to-day responsibility for our compliance programs, with support from our compliance leads.”
The departure was announced in an email to staff Tuesday evening, according to a source familiar with the situation.
Trouble for Coinbase
Horowitz’s departure comes days after Coinbase vice president of Business and Data Dan Yoo announced that he will leave the company because of the firm’s apolitical stance.
Yoo informed about his departure via a Linkedin post on October
“In light of the decision the company was asked to make by October 7th, I have decided to leave Coinbase. I have agreed to stay on to help manage a transition through the end of the year, as necessary.”
Yoo had joined Coinbase in 2019 and is now set to leave just a year after.
Meanwhile, Tennis champion and investor Serena Williams recently announced that her secret investment firm Serena Ventures, founded in 2014, will no longer invest in the popular US cryptocurrency exchange.
Serena Ventures invests in companies with diverse leadership, individual empowerment, creativity, and opportunity, and invested in Coinbase in April 2019.
According to the Serena ventures website, the company’s portfolio includes more than 30 companies with a total market capitalization of $ 12 billion. It’s unclear how much the company invested in Coinbase.
