On January 14, Celsius Network, a leading cryptocurrency loan company, announced the appointment of Aslihan Denizkurdu as Chief Operating Officer and Frank van Etten as Chief Investment Officer. The company made the hiring as it prepares to serve its customers in a better way. In her role, Denizkurdu will be in charge of positioning Celsius as a reliable and trusted service provider to its customers while continuously strengthening the firm’s infrastructure as well as management and governance practices. In contrast, Van Etten will be responsible for overseeing Celsius' investment activities and teams. In this function, Van Etten will be tasked with generating returns on cryptocurrencies on Celsius' platform and positioning the business for sustainable growth. Both Denizkurdu and van Etten will report to Celsius' CEO, Alex Mashinsky.
Before Celsius, Denizkurdu worked at CitiGroup where she served as the Chief Operating Officer and Head of Governance for Risk Management. Prior to working at CitiGroup, she served as a Senior Buy-side Research Analyst at AllianceBernstein Holding, a global asset management firm, where she helped various financial companies invest in their business growth. In this role, Denizkurdu assisted in advising the US Treasury Department on the management of the ~$430bn TARP program.
Before van Etten joined Celsius, he worked in the asset management space for twenty years. During that period, he built wide investment experience and performed various global leadership roles at different financial institutions such as ING, Voya, UBS and Nuveen. In addition, he helped oversee the management of more than $200 billion in client assets in previous CIO roles. Besides that, he executed various advisory roles, focusing on efficiency programs at big global financial institutions. Moreover, he led the execution of various growth strategies and large-scale strategic projects that helped position the businesses for future success.
Alex Mashinsky, the CEO of Celsius, stated, "We are seeing a migration of talent from traditional finance to decentralized finance and crypto companies. As we prepare for the next chapter of our growth, I am excited to see this top tier talent join our team with the exemplary leadership and wealth of experience that Denizkurdu and van Etten bring from Citigroup and UBS, respectively."
Crypto Firms Are Expanding to Serve More Users
The development by Celsius Network comes at a time when many crypto firms are hiring professionals to help them manage rising customer demands associated with the crypto boom. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have captured people’s attention with amazing gains, creating newly minted billionaires and millionaires. However, there are conversations about the volatility associated with crypto coins and the recent sell-off in Bitcoin. But, what remains is the dire need for quality talent to work in such rapidly growing companies.
With cryptocurrency going mainstream, there is now intense competition from major banks, hedge funds, fintechs, investment banks and all sorts of other financial institutions. Tesla, Block Inc (formerly Square), Meta Platform Inc (formerly Facebook), MicroStrategy, Apple and other tech firms are seeking to get in the crypto sector or have already taken action. El Salvador, a country in Central America, has already made Bitcoin a legal tender. All these show that a large number of job openings seek talent to leverage their strategic positions in the crypto industry.
Coinbase, the largest crypto exchange in the US, has been hiring from investment banks such as JPMorgan, Barclays and HSBC. Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, recently advertised more than 350 jobs globally. BlockFi, a crypto-management platform, currently hired 100 people internationally, including both remote and in-office options. Last year, the crypto exchange, FTX hired a former forex sales executive from HSBC in an effort to serve traditional financial institutions. The Bahamian-based exchange has been actively reaching out to traditional finance firms (like banks, payment processors, and hedge funds) to develop relationships, figuring out which products they want most and developing beta versions of such products.
