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Ex-Coinbase Exec Nana Murugesan Joins zkSync Developer Matter Labs As President – Crypto News

Published

1 year ago

April 18, 2024

Dripp

Nana Murugesan, former VP of international & business development at Coinbase, has joined Matter Labs, the developer of zkSync, as president.

Alex Gluchowski, chief executive officer at Matter Labs, said “It’s going to be like we brought Matter Labs from zero to one, and Nana’s job is to bring it from one to 10 and 200 to 1,000.”

Nana Murugesan Joins a16z-Backed Matter Labs

In a significant personnel change in the crypto market reported by Bloomberg, Nana Murugesan has decided to join Matter Labs, a company scaling Ethereum with zero-knowledge proofs to push crypto adoption. Murugesan at Coinbase Global led the crypto exchange on international expansion endeavors.

Nana Murugesan will be the first president of Matter Labs, hoping to guide and drive the blockchain company into a big success. “I’ve always wanted to take on this role of a founder complement, to really help a company scale to the next level, which with smaller companies in earlier stages, it’s possible to do,” he said.

He will oversee a team of 60 employees and take charge of a major hiring effort by Matter Labs in the coming months. The company is scaling its marketing, legal, and policy operations amid growing demand and jobs in the crypto sphere. Crypto’s largest VC firm Andreessen Horowitz played an active role in the hiring process. Andreessen Horowitz has invested in both Coinbase and Matter Labs.

He departed from Coinbase in November, expanding the largest US crypto exchange’s expansion across Europe as well as establishing asset listings and business partnerships. Murugesan said he will continue to serve as an advisor at Coinbase until July 2024 to ensure a seamless transition and complete his board responsibilities.

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Matter Labs Makes Major Moves

The company continues to announce major developments since its launch, from fundraising to new establishing new partnerships. Matter Labs raised $200 million in a Series C funding round co-led by Blockchain Capital, Dragonfly, and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

Last week, Circle boosted USDC accessibility with zkSync integration, enhancing scalability for Ethereum-based transactions. The integration will benefit a wide range of applications and DeFi protocols by facilitating payments, trading, and other financial services on a stable foundation.

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