Dive Brief:

• Grayscale Investments Sponsors has named two current finance executives to temporarily take its finance reins after long-time CFO Edward McGee stepped down, the company said in a recent securities filing.
• McGee, who has been the crypto asset manager’s finance chief since 2019, left the company on July 2 for personal reasons, according to a filing late last week with the Securities and Exchange Commission. His departure is not related to any disagreement with the company and he “leaves the company on good terms,” the filing states.
• Two executives who have served as SVPs of finance since January, Kathryn Masci and Daniel Plourde, have been appointed to succeed McGee as co-CFOs on an interim basis. Masci will also serve as principal financial and accounting officer, the filing states. 

Dive Insight:

McGee’s departure comes just under a year after the Stamford, Connecticut-based company announced that it “confidentially” submitted a draft Form S-1 registration statement last summer, according to a press release at the time. Grayscale is among a number of crypto firms which have plans to go public that have been delayed by market conditions, CoinDesk reported. 

Bitcoin’s value has fallen about 42% over the past 12 months to about $64,000, though it rose above $120,000 last fall.  

In a statement emailed to CFO Dive Friday Grayscale said it was unable to comment about its IPO due to the SEC-mandated quiet period. The company also said it appreciated McGee's contributions and wished him well.

“We have strong leadership in place with Kathryn Masci and Daniel Plourde serving as co-CFOs on an interim basis while we search for a successor. Our strategy remains unchanged as we continue to build on our success as the world’s largest digital asset-focused investment platform,” the company said in the statement.

Before joining Grayscale McGee worked at Goldman Sachs for over four years where he focused on accounting policy and prior to that logged three years at Ernst & Young. 

While at Graystone in 2022 McGee advocated for the Financial Accounting Standards Board to draw up specific accounting guidance for digital assets. In 2022 McGee also praised FASB after it moved forward with an update to accounting standards that made fair value the primary accounting method for measuring certain crypto assets.  

“Does it solve every nuance from an accounting perspective even with fair value in terms of the scope of the assets and how digital assets are maybe unique from other assets on the balance sheet? No. But does the progress they made give me a lot of excitement? Absolutely,” McGee told CFO Dive in 2023. “I think the FASB met the moment.”