OKX is setting up shop in France and plans to hire 100 full time employees there in the next three years, an OK Group executive said.
As part of this move, the crypto exchange has applied to be registered as a Digital Asset Service Provider (DASP) in France. With the DASP license, a firm is allowed to provide digital asset custody and operate a crypto trading platform. More than 70 other approved DASPs operate in the country including Bitstamp, Societe Generale Forge, and the French division of Luno.
Binance got its hands on a French license back in May 2022, and it was the company’s first DASP in Europe, per a statement. According to Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, the world’s largest crypto exchange had hired 150 people for its Paris operations by September 2022.
OKX expects the DASP registration process to take up to six months.
Matter Labs expands its talent pool
Similar to the crypto startup funding space, Web3 gaming was a dominant force in hiring news this week.
Matter Labs, the builder of layer-2 scaling solution zkSync, hired former Activision Blizzard executive Michael Lee as its senior vice president of growth.
Lee served as Activision’s vice president of community since 2022 and focused mainly on managing the immense web of over 400 million players of games such as Call of Duty, Overwatch and World of WarCraft.
Lee was also a vice president for three years at Dfinity, a contributor to the Internet Computer Blockchain.
In his new role, Lee will be tasked with making zkSync into a gaming platform.
Other notable hires
- Gate.HK, which recently opened for trading on May 23 in Hong Kong, has hired former BNP-Paribas director Kevin Lee as its CEO. Hong Kong, ever since it allowed crypto exchanges to operate within its borders, has seen a flurry of new market entrants.
- The Fed is looking for a “Senior Financial Institution Policy Analyst” on Linkedin. This new employee would be responsible for tracking and assessing “novel fintech activities” conducted by banks, including things related to “crypto-assets” and “distributed ledger technology.” The job posting has been up for four days and has 20 applicants.
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