Genesis Sales, Trading Chief Ballensweig Exits Crypto Lender
The departure follows massive losses and a new management team put in place earlier this year.
The shakeup at Genesis Trading continued Wednesday as co-Head of Sales and Trading Matt Ballensweig announced his departure from the crypto lending desk, which lost hundreds of millions of dollars during this year’s crypto contagion.
Ballensweig said in a tweet that he will remain an adviser to Genesis “for the foreseeable future.” He said he had already shifted his day-to-day responsibilities to colleagues to close out his five-year tenure at the Digital Currency Group-owned firm (CoinDesk is a sister company).
Genesis has suffered an exodus of talent in the wake of its massive losses to failed crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital. In August, it cut 20% of staff and its CEO Michael Moro resigned; research chief Noelle Acheson later called it quits. Meanwhile, Head of Derivatives Joshua Lim appears to have one foot out the door. At the same time, however, the trading firm added a chief risk officer, chief compliance officer and chief technology officer to its management ranks.
UPDATED (Sept. 9, 18:26 UTC): Adds information about recent hirings at Genesis.