Founder and CTO of DCG-owned crypto exchange Luno departs

Timothy Stranex, the founder and chief technology officer of the crypto exchange Luno, quietly left the firm in December to pursue “personal projects” after ten years at the company. 

The former VP of engineering, Simon Ince, has been filling the role of CTO since the beginning of the year, a company spokesperson confirmed.

“Appointed as the new CTO at the beginning of the month, I will lead Luno’s global engineering team as we continue to build a simple, intuitive app that promotes a safe and reliable experience for our 10 million customers across the globe,” said Ince in a statement shared with The Block. “As Luno explores and innovates with new products to elevate this experience, we will also continue to develop the talent of our engineering team for success.” 

Founded in 2013 by Stranex, Carel van Wyk, Pieter Heyns and current CEO Marcus Swanepoel, Luno is a crypto exchange and wallet app that says it has customers in over 40 countries.

The London-based firm was acquired by the crypto conglomerate Digital Currency Group in September 2020. Fellow DCG subsidiary Genesis Global Capital is currently edging toward a bankruptcy filing with creditors negotiating a prepackaged plan with the firm. 

The C-suite reshuffle at Luno follows several other executive leadership switch-ups at other digital asset companies.

As the crypto market has been rocked by the collapses of Terra-Luna, Three Arrows Capital, and most recently FTX, crypto firms have seen a number of executive leadership shakeups in recent months.

In November, The Block reported that Phillip Gillespie of market maker B2C2 stepped down as group CEO to make way for former U.S. CEO Nicola White. 

Previously, Bitmex CEO Alexander Höptner also stepped down, following in the footsteps of Kraken’s Jesse Powell, NYDIG’s Robert Gutmann and Genesis CEO Michael Moro.  

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