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Top lawyer to exit Winkelvoss twins’ crypto exchange Gemini
A man walks past the logo of Gemini Trust, a digital currency exchange and custodian, during the Bitcoin Conference 2022 in Miami Beach, Florida, U.S. April 6, 2022. REUTERS/Marco Bello
(Reuters) – Gemini Trust Co’s top lawyer, Sydney Schaub, is leaving the crypto exchange led by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss to join Opendoor Technologies Inc, the online home sales platform said on Thursday.
Schaub will become San Francisco-based Opendoor’s chief legal officer after spending nearly four years as Gemini’s top lawyer.
The crypto market has fallen this year, and several companies have filed for bankruptcy or are looking for urgent capital injections.
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A Gemini spokesperson said Schaub remains with the company until Aug. 5, after which Assistant General Counsel Niels Gjertson will assume the role of general counsel overseeing legal, compliance and regulatory matters.
Schaub was not immediately available for comment.
Opendoor CEO and co-founder Eric Wu said in a statement Thursday that Schaub “has been instrumental in turning companies that disrupt old ways of doing business into household names.”
She previously served as general counsel at the fashion company Rent the Runway, and worked in the legal departments at Square Inc, now Block Inc, and Alphabet Inc’s Google.
Opendoor went public in December 2020 through a merger with a blank check company led by investor Chamath Palihapitiya.
The company’s former chief legal officer, Beth Stevens, left in September to become general counsel for Walmart Inc-backed fintech company ONE, according to her LinkedIn bio.
Gemini is one of several firms, including Coinbase Global Inc and BlockFi, to cut staff amid the downturn in the crypto market.
The Winklevoss brothers said in a blog post in June that the company would cut about 10% of its workforce amid a “contraction phase” in the industry.
A Gemini spokesperson did not immediately comment on the layoffs.
The New York-based company also faces a federal lawsuit filed by the US CFTC in June alleging the firm made false and misleading statements regarding a bitcoin futures contract it pursued in 2017.
A spokesperson did not immediately comment on the lawsuit Thursday. The company said in a June statement about the lawsuit that the firm has “eight years of experience asking for permission, not forgiveness, and always doing the right thing.”
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