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Crypto Exchange Backpack Appoints Stripe, Banking Veteran as CFO
Backpack was founded by Armani Ferrante and Tristan Yver, alums of defunct trading company Alameda Research and bankrupt crypto exchange FTX respectively
Updated Mar 22, 2024, 12:10 p.m. Published Mar 21, 2024, 12:05 p.m.
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- Oliver Sleafer previously served as head of liquidity management in APAC for Stripe and Credit Suisse.
- Backpack was founded by two alums of Sam Bankman-Fried’s collapsed crypto empire.
- The crypto exchange recently raised $17 million in Series A funding at a $120 million valuation.
Backpack, the crypto exchange founded by FTX and Alameda alums, has appointed Oliver Sleafer as its new chief financial officer (CFO).
Sleafer joined Backpack last October as its head of treasury. Two years ago, he was head of liquidity management in the Asia-Pacific region for payments company Stripe, having spent the previous five years in the same role at Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse.
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Backpack was founded by Armani Ferrante and Tristan Yver, alums of defunct trading companies Alameda Research and bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, respectively. They left the Sam Bankman-Fried-founded firms prior to their collapse at the end of 2022.
Less than six weeks prior to folding, FTX was part of a $20 million funding round into Backpack developer Coral. Needless to say, the bulk of this funding did not materialize. Ferrante and Vyer subsequently set about building a crypto exchange to fill the gap left behind by FTX.
Backpack recently raised $17 million in Series A funding at a $120 million valuation.
Read More: DOJ's Proposed 50-Year Sentence for Sam Bankman-Fried 'Disturbing,' FTX Founder’s Lawyers Say
CORRECTION (March 21, 12:34 UTC): Corrects article to clarify that Armani Ferrante was a software developer at Alameda, not an exec.
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