Robinhood hires former Grayscale top executive and former Ripple adviser

The online broker Robinhood has appointed Benjamin Melnicki as chief compliance officer. This is reported by WSJ, citing a company spokesperson.

The new employee will join Robinhood Crypto, the company’s cryptocurrency unit. He will fill the vacancy left by Scott Hershorin, who left the company in June and moved to the role of Director of Legal Compliance at Dragonfly Capital Partners.

Previously, Melnicki held a similar post at Grayscale Investments. Before that, he worked at Bank of America, and he served as a regulatory affairs adviser at Ripple Labs and Blockchain.com.

A Grayscale spokesperson confirmed Melnicki’s departure and said the firm is looking for a replacement to fill his post.

On June 1, 2021, it emerged that Robinhood would pay a record $70 million to settle a dispute with FINRA. In the spring the firm estimated these costs at $26.6 million.

In July, the online broker raised the potential fine from NYDFS $15 million to $30 million. The regulator had questions for the Robinhood Crypto unit regarding cybersecurity and anti-money-laundering controls.

On July 29, RobinhoodconductedIPO on Nasdaq. On August 4, the American exchangehalted trading the company’s securities three times due to high volatility.

Robinhood chief Vlad Tenev said the online broker will expand its offerings in digital assets, as it considers cryptocurrencies a cornerstone of its future development.

In September, Robinhoodconfirmed rumors of testing a cryptocurrency wallet. Prior to that, Bloombergdiscovered in the iOS app code a test solution to protect users from the volatility of digital assets. The platform rolled out the feature in mid-September.

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