Over the past year, major crypto platforms have been losing C-suite members either to other firms or to other markets entirely.
Kraken, Coinbase, Binance, and even FTX, prior to its crash, all saw executives leave for some reason or other over the past year.
However, this is Gemini’s second high-level departure – Noah Perlman, Gemini’s former COO, left for Binance earlier this year, where he is currently employed as the exchange’s Global Chief Compliance Officer.
The former Chief Technology Officer, Pravjit Tiwana, joined the company in January 2022 and also acted as Gemini’s CEO for the APAC region and was responsible for building Gemini’s operations in India from the ground up. As CTO, he oversaw Gemini’s product design and engineering and allegedly made efforts to update internal procedures, regulations, and workflows.
The latter endeavors stemmed from his previous stint as a general manager at Amazon Web Services, a position he occupied for six years before joining Gemini.
According to several unnamed former workers, this resulted in a number of employees leaving. It’s unclear if said employers left of their own accord or were pushed out – and if their positions were vacated during Gemini’s layoff spree earlier this year.
Tiwana’s departure was leaked to Bloomberg by two people “familiar with the matter”, who preferred to remain anonymous sources. Bloomberg has since reached out to both Tiwana and Gemini’s PR people.
Neither have responded to requests for any further comment on the matter. For now, it’s anybody’s guess whether Tiwana was asked to step down or whether he is simply moving on to greener pastures.
Gemini is currently locked in a battle with the Digital Currency Group, largely due to the collapse of DCG subsidiary Genesis, which partnered with Gemini on its Earn program. Since Genesis went bankrupt, both they and Gemini have also been fighting a lawsuit from the SEC – a lawsuit which Tyler Winklevoss likened to a manufactured parking ticket.
“Despite these ongoing conversations, the SEC chose to announce their lawsuit to the press before notifying us. Super lame. We look forward to defending ourselves against this manufactured parking ticket. And we will make sure this doesn’t distract us from the important recovery work we are doing.”
DCG and Gemini are also locked in a legal battle between themselves, with the Winklevoss Twins and DCG CEO Barry Silbert frequently engaging in PR sparring matches.