Opyn Founders Announce Departure Post-CFTC Cease-and-Desist
- The founders of the DeFi protocol, Opyn, have announced their departure from the project on November 14.
- Zubin Koticha and Alexis Gauba will be “leaving crypto,” adding that it was an “emotional decision.”
- Head of Research Andrew Leone is now being promoted to CEO and will take over the operations.
- The CFTC issued a cease-and-desist order and fined the protocol $250,000 two months ago.
The founder of the decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol, Opyn, has announced their departure from the project after the regulatory action taken by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) against the protocol. Zubin Koticha and Alexis Gauba, the two founders of the protocol, have stated that they are stepping down and “leaving crypto,” two months after the project settled a lawsuit filed by the CFTC.
The two founders will be leaving the digital asset market, according to a statement Koticha shared on social media platform X (previously known as Twitter). They cited the CFTC lawsuit as the reason for their decision. He also noted that this was a “very emotional decision” to make for the two co-founders of Opyn.
“We joined crypto in 2017 because we wanted to build an inclusive, fair, and open financial system. We spent the last six years working on incredible stuff that would’ve never been possible in TradFi—cutting-edge work on the forefront of structured products and derivatives,” said Koticha.
Additionally, the Head of Research at Opyn, Andrew Leone, is now being promoted to CEO and will be taking over the operations of the protocol. While the two co-founders had plans to remain in the digital asset space for life, Koticha noted that circumstances have changed and now they have to quit crypto.
Koticha noted that Leone has huge ambitions for Opyn, and therefore, he will be the one handling the operations in the near future. The co-founder noted, “Andrew is an absolute baller. A MIT-engineer turned Wall St. derivatives trader turned DeFi algo market maker, he’s one of the best in DeFi and has been de-facto like a 3rd cofounder to me and Alexis for a long time.”
The co-founder also noted in the post that new projects for Opyn are on the horizon, and Leone will reveal additional details regarding the same in the near future. Interestingly, Leone has been working with the co-founders for over three and a half years.
“We’ve always been focused on building innovative and novel products to build a better financial system and that will continue. Can’t wait to share more soon,” Leone added.
As reported earlier, the CFTC has issued cease-and-desist orders against three DeFi platforms, Opyn, ZeroEx, and Deridex, along with fines worth $250,000, $200,000, and $100,000, respectively. Further, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has asked DeFi protocols to challenge the CFTC in court, but it seems that this is not the path they’d like to take.
A crypto journalist with over 3 years of experience in DeFi, NFT, metaverse, etc. Parth has worked with major media outlets in the crypto and finance world and has gained experience and expertise in crypto culture after surviving bear and bull markets over the years.
