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Portfolio > Alternative Investments > Cryptocurrencies

More Leaders Exit Onramp

By Jeff Berman

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What You Need to Know

  • Three more leaders have left the startup that operates a crypto-asset integration platform for advisors.
  • Early this year, Tyrone Ross unexpectedly stepped down as CEO of Onramp.
  • Several jobs were also cut at the company in the past three months.

Onramp Invest has lost more top leaders in recent days as Caitlin Cook, Craig Uhlenkott and Nyle Bayer all said they left the company, which operates a crypto-asset integration platform for financial advisors.

Cook, who joined Onramp in 2021 and most recently served as its head of community and vice president of operations for its Onramp Academy, tweeted on Tuesday that she joined Hxro, a company that operates a decentralized liquidity network for risk-based applications, as head of marketing and communications.

She thanked Onramp “for the opportunity I was given over the past 14 months,” adding: “Helping build an education platform from scratch at 24 (among other tasks) within an early stage startup was a challenging and formative experience that I wouldn’t trade for anything.”

Cook didn’t say why she decided to leave Onramp and didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

But she explained why she decided to join Hxro, tweeting: “Coming from the traditional finance world, it’s clear to me that we are in the midst of a transformative period within financial services. With that comes a unique opportunity to rethink how markets work.”

She added: “I believe that what Hxro is doing is a game changer in not only the crypto derivatives space, but also for market infrastructure as a whole.”

Uhlenkott, who served as Onramp’s chief product officer, tweeted June 3: “Today I informed my @Onrampinvest Team that it’s time for me to move on. They have been amazing to work alongside these last 16 months, wish them only the best moving forward. Grateful for the opportunity to build with them and proud of everything we accomplished.”

And Bayer, who was Onramp’s chief marketing officer, tweeted Tuesday: “I intended to stay lowkey but since the trades are reporting on it i may as well say that Friday was my last day at @Onrampinvest thanks for all of the support and I am looking forward to sharing my next move with you all!”

Bayer and Uhlenkott, who, like Cook, joined Onramp in 2021, also didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.

Onramp declined to comment on their departures or say who was replacing them, if anybody, referring ThinkAdvisor only to the blog post by Onramp CEO Eric Ervin from Tuesday in which he didn’t directly address any of the three departures.

“When I first took over, time was a luxury I could not afford,” he said. “I had to be decisive and swift with the initial cuts, but over the past few months, as I worked with the investors and the team, I was able to evaluate and assess the existing leadership team. One thing was clear, we all saw great opportunity, but the mission, vision, values, and (crucially) the tactics were not always aligned.”

He added: “Over the past 90 days, we have had to overhaul nearly our entire leadership team. As I mentioned before, the company ‘hired up’ too quickly. As one investor put it, we were suffering from ‘title creep,’ we had way too many chiefs way too early. I believe we are now on the tail end of this transformation with Ashton Chaffee as COO, Joel Themmen as CTO, and myself as the CEO.”

Onramp is “now looking to build out the sales team by hiring a VP of Sales, an Account Executive, and a Business Development rep,” he disclosed.

In March, Tyrone Ross unexpectedly stepped down as CEO of Onramp, less than eight months after he announced that trading started on the company’s platform. Dani Fava, head of strategic development at Envestnet, also tweeted that, “following Tyrone’s resignation, I’ve made the personal decision to step down from the @Onrampinvest board.”

Replacing Ross, who co-founded the company and had served as its public face since its creation in 2020, was co-founder Ervin, a financial services industry veteran.

Only a few days later, Onramp said significant changes that included job cuts were needed at Onramp Invest for the company to counter the massive amount of startup capital it was spending without generating positive cash flow and gaining additional capital.

(Pictured: Caitlin Cook at last week’s EDGE conference in Hollywood, Florida; Photo by Jeff Berman)

Jeff Berman

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