Dive Brief:
- Crypto exchange Gemini Space Station announced Tuesday it is “parting ways” with its CFO Dan Chen, COO Marshall Beard, and CLO Tyler Meade, effective Tuesday, and expects to enter into separation agreements with “potential eligibility” for a “limited period of time” for the executives to provide additional transition services, according to a Tuesday securities filing.
- The company named Danijela Stojanovic, 44, who has been the company’s chief accounting officer since May, as interim CFO and appointed Kate Freedman, 43, who has served as associate general counsel and corporate secretary since November, as its interim general counsel, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
- Shares of the New York-based company, which went public in September at an offering price of $28 per share, slumped nearly 13% to close at $6.59 Tuesday. The company’s C-suite shakeup comes amid the latest “crypto winter,” with the price of Bitcoin down more than 42% to just under $68,000 after trading in the $117,000 range in mid-August: a spike partly due to optimism sparked by the Trump administration’s crypto-friendly policies.
Dive Insight:
Founded in 2014, the company on Tuesday said it does not intend to appoint a successor COO “at this time,” asserting that those duties will be assumed by Cameron Winklevoss, the company’s president and co-founder along with his twin brother Tyler, who is CEO.
Beard resigned from his role on the board, with the company noting that his resignation was not the result of any disagreement between him and the company “on any matter relating to the company’s operations, policies or practices.”
The filing did not say whether there was a disagreement between it and the CFO and COO. Gemini Space Station did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the reasons for the departures.
Earlier this month, the company signaled it was facing financial pressure and retrenching. As part of a broader initiative to cut operating expenses and support a “path to profitability,” it announced it was shrinking its workforce by about 25% or up to 200 global employees, in locations including the U.S. and Singapore, according to a Feb. 5 filing.
It also said it was winding down its operations in the U.K., the E.U. and other European jurisdictions, as well as Australia, while continuing to operate in the U.S. and Singapore. In connection with the plan, the company estimated it will have a pre-tax restructuring and related charges of about $11 million.
The company also said on Tuesday that its financial results for 2025 are not yet available, but on a preliminary unaudited basis the company said it expected to report an adjusted EBITDA loss of between $257 million and $267 million, including net and unrealized losses. It also noted monthly transaction users increased by 17% to 600,000 from the level of MTUs served in the year-earlier period.
Chen, formerly the vice president of capital markets and bank partnerships for buy now, pay later company Affirm, joined the cryptocurrency company as its CFO last spring as it was reportedly gearing up for its initial public offering, CFO Dive previously reported.
His interim successor, Stojanovic, joined the company from Blue Apron where she served in the senior finance and accounting leadership roles, including as senior VP of finance and accounting and helped support the food subscription box company’s IPO in 2017.
A Certified Public Accountant, Stojanovic began her career with the Big Four firm PricewaterhouseCoopers in Sweden.
As interim CFO, Stojanovic is eligible for an annual base salary of $450,000 and a restricted stock unit award of 132,275 shares, according to the filing.
