In brief
- CoinMarketCap CEO Carylyne Chan has left the company today.
- Two other senior members have resigned in the last two weeks.
- The departures come just a few months after the company was acquired by crypto exchange Binance.
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CoinMarketCap CEO Carylyne Chan resigned today after two years and three months at the company. Her resignation comes just four months after the company was acquired by crypto exchange Binance.
“Before I joined CoinMarketCap, I built and subsequently sold a company that was in the artificial intelligence space. I believe that there is still a lot to be done in AI, so I might go back to that field at some point,” Chan told Decrypt.
“However, in the immediate term, I’m exploring new opportunities or industries which need modernizing with technology and better branding; I believe the experience which I’ve amassed over the last decade can be pivotal to drive real gains in the wider economy, especially at this moment in time of our collective human history,” she added.
Her resignation follows Binance’s acquisition of CoinMarketCap, which was announced on April 2, 2020. This acquisition resulted in Brandon Chez, the founder of CoinMarketCap, stepping down and paving the way for Chan to take up the role of interim CEO. It also saw controversy after a major change was made on the site that pushed Binance to the top of its rankings.
“Throughout the acquisition and after, it was my goal to uphold the responsibility to our users of integrity, transparency and non-censorship. As I said in my letter to the crypto space when I became interim CEO, operational independence is key, and I asked our users to judge us over the coming months to make sure we kept our word. All I can ask is for that accountability to continue,” she said.
During Chan’s time at CoinMarketCap, the company played a big role in mainstreaming the crypto space. Launching on Nasdaq, Bloomberg and Reuters, the company’s crypto indices provided crypto data to a much wider audience.
Chan also oversaw the development of the company’s Liquidity metric and score, providing solutions to volume inflation on exchanges, as well as helping users find the best crypto exchanges. Also during her time at the company, CoinMarketCap began the Data Accountability & Transparency Alliance, which was aimed at promoting transparency in the crypto industry.
Two vice presidents also resign
Both Spencer Yang, vice president of operations, growth and revenue, and Jeremy Seow, vice president of product, have also left the company within the last two weeks.
Yang, who announced his resignation on LinkedIn, told Decrypt, “I have decided to leave as I wanted to spend more time thinking about the problems I’d like to solve outside of the company.” He added that he has joined the On Deck Fellowship, a 10-week program where individuals in the formative stages of starting a company meet each other.
Seow joined in, "Spencer and Carylyne were great colleagues at CoinMarketCap and were amongst the sharpest and brightest people I've had the pleasure of working with. They were instrumental in helping me craft the product roadmap and vision for CoinMarketCap both pre and post acquisition."
He added, "While I don't speak for them, I (and I suspect both Carylyne and Spencer as well) saw the delivery of some of these significant product milestones as a good time for us to transition away from the company to go back to our startup roots."