Former BlockFi VP to lead Google’s Web 3.0 efforts
11:44, 22 December 2022
Rishi Ramchandani, the former vice-president (VP) of Asia for bankrupt crypto lender BlockFi, has become the Asia-Pacific (APAC) Web 3.0 lead at Google.
Ramchandani said in a LinkedIn post that he is “excited for the next step” in his career and looking forward to working with some “great people”.
Mitesh Agarwal, managing director at Google with a focus on its cloud service customers, partner engineering and Web 3.0, said he was “super thrilled to welcome Ramchandani to lead Google Cloud’s efforts in Web 3.0”.
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BlockFi bankruptcy and FTX exposure
On 14 November 2022, BlockFi announced that it could “no longer operate business as usual” in the aftermath of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX filing for bankruptcy on 11 November.
In June 2022, FTX bailed out BlockFi with an injection of $250m (£207m) and then partnered with the crypto lender.
At the time Sam Bankman-Fried, then CEO of FTX, revealed in a series of tweets that he had chosen to help BlockFi because it had “careful risk management and great leadership”.
He said: “Sometimes leadership means acting decisively and that’s what BlockFi did. We take our duty seriously to protect the digital asset ecosystem and its customers.”
After the collapse of FTX, BlockFi said the “most prudent decision” for all its clients was to “pause many of our platform activities”.
BlockFi admitted that it had “significant exposure to FTX and associated corporate entities that encompasses obligations owed to us by Alameda Research, assets held at FTX.com, and undrawn amounts from our credit line with FTX.US.”
Recently, BlockFi asked the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey to allow customer withdrawals so they can access their crypto held by the lender.
BlockFi described this move as an “important step toward our goal of returning assets to clients”.
A hearing will be held on 9 January 2023 to decide if the motion should be passed or not.
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