By Frances Yue
Hello, welcome back to Distributed Ledger, our weekly crypto newsletter that reaches your inbox every Thursday. I’m Frances Yue, crypto reporter at MarketWatch. I’ll walk you through the latest and greatest in the digital asset world this week.
During the past few weeks, chief executives at several major crypto companies left their positions. I caught up with R.A. Farrokhnia, professor at Columbia Business School to discuss reasons behind such moves.
Find me on Twitter at @FrancesYue_ to send feedback, or tell us what you think we should cover. You can also reach me through email to share your personal stories with crypto.
Crypto in a snap
Bitcoin /zigman2/quotes/31322028/realtime BTCUSD -0.03% went down about 5.6% over the past seven days, and was trading at around $19,159 on Thursday, according to CoinDesk data. Ether /zigman2/quotes/108573964/realtime ETHUSD -0.32% lost 18% over the seven-day stretch to around $1,306. Meme token Dogecoin /zigman2/quotes/226077044/realtime DOGEUSD +0.08% tanked 2.8% while another dog-themed token, Shiba Inu /zigman2/quotes/231473891/realtime SHIBUSD +0.12% , traded 8% lower from seven days ago.
Crypto Metrics
| Biggest Gainers | Price | %7-day return |
| Quant | $135.02 | 33.5% |
| Tokenize Xchange | $7.64 | 29.5% |
| Maker | $725.6 | 22.1% |
| XDC Network | $0.03 | 19.6% |
| Uniswap | $6.38 | 18.9% |
| Source: CoinGecko as of Sept. 29 |
| Biggest Decliners | Price | %7-day return |
| Evmos | $1.58 | -33.5% |
| Lido DAO | $1.59 | -12.4% |
| DeFiChain | $0.73 | -8.7% |
| ApeCoin | $5.40 | -7.1% |
| Osmosis | $1.10 | -7.0% |
| Source: CoinGecko as of Sept. 29 |
Exodus of crypto CEOs
The crypto sector has seen an exodus of chief executives from major companies, as the slump in valuations this year hook the industry.
Early August, Michael Saylor dropped the CEO title at MicroStrategy and took on a new role as executive chairman. In the same month, Michael Moro left the chief executive position at crypto lender Genesis, after its parent company Digital Currency Group filed a $1.2 billion claim against bankrupt digital asset hedge fund Three Arrows. Meanwhile, Sam Trabucco quitted his role as the co-CEO at Alameda Research, crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried’s hedge fund.
Earlier this month, Jesse Powell, co-founder of crypto exchange Kraken, stepped down as the company’s chief executive.
On Tuesday, Alex Mashinsky, chief executive at crypto lender Celsius, resigned from his post, amid the bankruptcy proceedings of the company. On the same day, Brett Harrison, president of FTX US, said he is leaving the role .
Reasons behind the moves may vary, with each company in a different position during the market downturn. Bankman-Fried’s FTX and Alameda have been aggressively acquiring several distressed crypto companies and assets, while some others, such as Celsius, filed for bankruptcy.
Still, a shakeout of C-suites at such a scale reflected changes in the overall crypto industry.
First comes the market conditions. For C-suite members who took the reins one or two years ago, when digital assets were on a bull run, they now face different challenges, as bitcoin lost almost 60% of its value year-to-date.
“Obviously in the downturn things become a bit trickier. You need a different type of management mindset, to weather the storm and a variety of crypto companies are going through the experience in a massively different way,” noted Farrokhnia.
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