(Bloomberg) — Paradigm co-founder Fred Ehrsam is stepping back from his managing partner role at the venture-capital fund, which was an investor in the failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX.
“This change allows me to carve out some time to explore areas of science that are of personal passion for me,” Ehrsam, who is also a co-founder of the crypto exchange Coinbase Global Inc., said in an email to employees on Tuesday. As a general partner, he plans to continue to work with the firm’s investing and research teams, and with portfolio companies, while remaining an advocate for crypto policy.
Paradigm is also an investor in many well-known decentralized finance projects including dYdX, Uniswap and Flashbots.
Ehrsam, 35, helped start Paradigm about five years ago, and it has emerged as one of the most influential crypto funds. The company has been affected by the implosion of FTX and has lost staff, according to an earlier story from The Information. Paradigm has been accused of playing down its crypto investing in recent months, an allegation it has disputed.
Matt Huang, who co-founded the San Francisco-based firm with Ehrsam, remains as a managing partner. Earlier this month, Huang testified as a witness in the criminal trial former FTX chief executive officer Sam Bankman-Fried.
Ehrsam is pulling back as the crypto market is in the middle of a resurgence, with bellwether Bitcoin doubling this year and smaller tokens posting gains of more than 60%.
(Adds market data in the final paragraph. An earlier update corrected Huang’s title.)
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