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-selling 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 slumped this year, and several companies have filed for bankruptcy or looked for emergency capital infusions.
A Gemini spokesperson said Schaub is still at the company until Aug. 5, after which deputy general counsel Niels Gjertson will take over the general counsel role overseeing legal, compliance and regulatory affairs.
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 making companies that are disrupting old ways of doing business into household names."
She previously served as general counsel at 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 head of legal, Beth Stevens, left in September to become general counsel of Walmart Inc-backed fintech company ONE, according to her LinkedIn bio.
Gemini is one of several firms, including Coinbase Global Inc and BlockFi, to slash headcount amid the crypto market downturn.
The Winklevoss brothers said in a June blog post that the company would cut about 10% of its workforce amid a "contraction phase" in the industry.
A Gemini spokesperson didn't immediately comment on the layoffs.
The New York-based company is also facing a federal lawsuit filed by the U.S. CFTC in June alleging firm made false and misleading statements concerning a bitcoin futures contract it pursued in 2017.
A spokesperson didn't immediately comment on the lawsuit on Thursday. The company said in a June statement on the litigation that the firm has "an eight year track-record of asking for permission, not forgiveness, and always doing the right thing."
Read more:
Home-selling platform Opendoor closes higher in Nasdaq debut
Crypto's latest meltdown leaves punters bruised and bewildered
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Sara Merken reports on privacy and data security, as well as the business of law, including legal innovation and key players in the legal services industry. Reach her at sara.merken@thomsonreuters.com
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