Coinbase loses its first CTO after just one year in the job

Coinbase, the $8 billion-valued crypto exchange, has lost its CTO after Balaji Srinivasan announced his departure from the company.

Srinivasan became the U.S. company’s first CTO one year ago after it acquired Earn.com, where he was CEO and co-founder. Given the tenure — one year and one day — it looks like Srinivasan’s departure comes after he served the minimum agreed period with Coinbase.

A high-profile figure in the crypto space who has also spent time with Coinbase and Earn investor A16z, Srinivasan announced his move on Twitter. He declined to go into specifics but said in a tweet that he plans to take time off to get fit, among other things, before launching into his next product.

1/2 Really enjoyed my time at Coinbase working with my friend @brian_armstrong. The Earn integration was successful and we’ve closed ~$200M in deals for the new Coinbase Earn. Was also my privilege to help with shipping new assets, launching USDC, & getting staking/voting going. — Balaji S. Srinivasan (@balajis) May 4, 2019

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong paid tribute to Srinivasan’s “incredible contributions” to the company.

Srinivasan’s time at Coinbase saw the company ramp up its expansion efforts. Those include the launch of its own USDC stablecoin, the expansion (and planned expansion) of assets sold to consumers and ‘pro’ traders, and a wider global push. Away from consumers, it launched a slew of services for retail investors and today its services also include staking and over-the-counter trading.

There’s also Coinbase’s own VC arm for doing deals with promising startups and, also on the M&A side, the firm has continued making acquisitions and acquihires. This year, it has snapped up Y Combinator graduate Blockspring and Neutrino, whose founders controversially once worked for surveillance firm Hacking Team, in what were its eleventh and twelfth acquisitions to date.

Talent retention appears to be becoming a bit of an issue at Coinbase.

Srinivasan’s exit comes a month after Dan Romero, the company’s head of international, left after a five-year stint. According to Coindesk, the company has seen at least a dozen senior or mid-level executives leave since October when it raised $300 million led by Tiger Global.