Bitcoin startup Trust Machines appoints ex-Coinbase president Asiff Hirji as advisor

Trust Machines, a startup that seeks to advance Bitcoin adoption via building applications around the flagship cryptocurrency, has added top talent to its team after hiring Manas Mohapatra and Igor Sylvester and appointing Asiff Hirji as an advisor.

The startup has built several Bitcoin applications, including a decentralized BTC lending app and Bitcoin DAO tooling solution.

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Hirji is an industry veteran

Asiff Hirji, who joins as an advisor, is a veteran of the blockchain and crypto space, having co-founded and invested in several high profile companies. Currently, Hirji is the President of financial services firm Figure, a role he also held at crypto exchange giant Coinbase. He also worked at brokerage firm Ameritrade.

The ex-Coinbase executive is also big in the venture capital space, including his experience at a16z and TPG.

BNY Mellon, Reddit talent join

Mohapatra, who has previously worked at Twitter and ViacomCBS, joins Trust Machines from BNY Mellon, where he held the position of Deputy General Counsel. He takes up the position of General Counsel.

At BNY Mellon, Mohapatra led a team of professionals tasked with the bank’s use of technology, part of which included developments around digital assets.

Igor Sylvestor joins the startup from Reddit and comes with vast experience after stints at Facebook and several top High Frequency Trading firms. He joins Trust Machines’ engineering team and will contribute to developments across core infrastructure, including the Stacks smart contracts layer and miners.

Hiring amid tough market conditions

The high-profile hires (and appointment) come as the crypto market navigates a tough crypto winter that has many companies slowing or freezing hiring. Others have drastically cut their headcounts amid brutal market conditions.

However, a few are taking this as an opportunity to build and thus going on with strategic addition to their staff.

For Trust Machines, the key hires add to the recent hiring of Aubrey Strobel (communications advisor) and Rena Shah (head of operations and strategy)