TL;DR: Around mid-March, CoinSpice learned Bitcoin.com CEO Stefan Rust would be leaving one of the most recognized brands in all of cryptocurrency. His tenure, taking the position once held exclusively by notable advocate Roger Ver, lasted seven months. It appears to be a restructuring by the company in the wake of a prolonged bear market.

Roger Ver: Bitcoin.com to be a Leaner, More Guerilla

“The community has been truly amazing,” now-former Bitcoin.com CEO Stefan Rust told CoinSpice when asked about his departure last month. “I’m super impressed at the amount of amazing words I’ve been getting.” Rust was promoted summer of 2019 from his business development role as Roger Ver, who essentially founded the company, was said to be in need of another full-time advocate for the brand, a co-CEO of sorts.

Stefan Rust is decidedly less polemical than Ver, and brought a more corporate sensibility to the recognizable platform. “Stefan’s dealmaking capabilities had us focused on growth with the more established companies and institutions,” Ver explained to CoinSpice on Rust no longer being with the company. “He will be missed at Bitcoin.com, but I suspect we will continue to see him playing a big role within the BCH ecosystem.”

Over the last half-year, Bitcoin.com rebranded its site layout and color scheme, smoothing its look and feel. It also launched an exchange, refined its point-of-sale offering for merchants, and recently rolled out a lightning-fast wallet application. The cryptocurrency market, however, was sluggish, bouncing in fits and starts during that time, and of late has shown little sign of recovery at least in the short term. “In these times, Bitcoin.com is looking for a leaner more guerrilla team,” Ver stressed to CoinSpice.

Longtime COO Mate Tokay Becomes CEO

Newly appointed CEO Mate Tokay, former Chief Operating Officer, will take over for Rust as CEO. Tokay told CoinSpice, “I have been with Bitcoin.com since day one. I am stepping into a role that I have had great respect for since I started at Bitcoin.com in 2015. I am excited to take the reins of this incredible company and I am grateful for this opportunity. My plans are to continue our vision to bring more economic freedom to the world.”

Asked if the change in CEOs meant a deviation from the company’s core mission, a new emphasis, Tokay was emphatic. “No, we are not. Through the accessibility of P2P electronic cash (Bitcoin Cash) we can bring more economic freedom to the world. We want to help bank the unbanked population, so they can be in control of their own money. In order to get there, we need to provide useful products and services such as the Bitcoin.com wallet, Local.bitcoin.com, and our exchange. These products make both Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Bitcoin (BTC) more accessible. We’re working to make money better for everyone,” he insisted.

Immediately ahead for the new CEO are two halvings, one for Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and one for BTC a month later, a scheduled BCH upgrade in May, dealing with a prolonged bear market, and now a global pandemic weaving its way into every facet of economic life.

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DYOR: CoinSpice is your home for just spicy crypto things. We’re not affiliated with any cryptocurrency project or token. Each published piece is intended for information purposes only, not investment advice and not in the hope of impacting speculative markets. There are plenty of trading sites and coin-specific advocacy journals out there, we’re neither. CoinSpice strives for rigorous accuracy in our reporting. Information presented here is contingent usually on a host of factors, and the ecosystem moves fast — prices change, projects change, and at warp speed. Do your own research.

DISCLOSURE: The author holds cryptocurrency as part of his financial portfolio, including BCH.