Sushi Community Votes in 'Head Chef' to Oversee Decentralized Crypto Exchange

Sushi community members elected Jared Grey as CEO on Monday, transferring power within the decentralized exchange after months of realignment and controversy surrounding the protocol’s governance.

Grey, who was formerly CEO of decentralized finance (DeFi) platform EONS and CEO at crypto exchange Bitfineon, will serve as Sushi’s “head chef,” as the company terms the role.

Sushi was created as a copy of Uniswap with added liquidity mining and governance features. Although aiming to improve on the original, it appears to be falling behind: Data from CoinGecko ranks Uniswap as the top-performing DEX with 24-hour trading volume of nearly $415 million. Sushi has $12 million.

DEXs are blockchain-based apps that coordinate large-scale trading of digital assets between many users. Unlike centralized exchanges, they use automated algorithms rather than acting as a financial intermediary between buyers and sellers.

Grey, who won with about 84% of a total 13 million votes across a ballot of five candidates, told CoinDesk that he hopes to bolster engagement on the platform and improve the exchange's internal organization.

“There is still quite a bit of inefficiency regarding automated-market makers, protocol user experiences and other areas of the industry where we should continue iterating to build richer product experiences,” Grey told CoinDesk. “I think Sushi has an opportunity to lead in these areas.”

The election followed a year of organizational difficulties at Sushi. In September 2021, the de facto CEO and founding member, pseudonymous 0xMaki, left for an external advising position. In December, Chief Technology Officer Joseph Delong departed to serve in the same role at NFT (non-fungible token) lending platform Astaria.

“I think there are bright and passionate minds on Sushi's team, and I want to help them realize their ambitions. I believe I have the experience that will help them do so,” Grey said.