Most Of Ripple-Owned Metaco's Execs, Marketing Staffers Have Left Crypto Custody Firm: Report

Cryptocurrency custody firm Metaco, which was acquired by Ripple for $250 million last year, has lost most of its executives and marketing team members, a new report revealed.

The latest departures at Metaco include CTO and chief customer officer Angel Nunez Mencias, head of sales Craig Perrin, and head of product marketing Mei Li Powell, CoinDesk reported Wednesday, citing a person familiar with the matter who shared with the outlet an internal email that provided details regarding some of the employee exits. Marketing officers Gene Peterson and Rahul Mudgal have also left Metaco, as per the report.

Nunez Mencias, who boasts a stellar resume that includes being the former lead architect at tech giant IBM, joined Metaco in February 2023. He has nearly two decades of experience in the tech industry, according to The Org.

Ripple did not immediately respond to International Business Times' request for comment on the reported executive and employee exodus.

The report comes about two months after CoinDesk first reported that Metaco CEO Adrien Treccani and product department head Peter DeMeo have left the company. At the time, a Ripple spokesperson confirmed the news.

"We appreciate the strong and industry-leading custody business that Adrien and his team built, as well as his leadership in integrating the custody team and solution with Ripple following the acquisition last year," the spokesperson said.

Following Ripple's acquisition of Metaco, there were reports that banking giant Citigroup was reviewing its partnership with the digital asset custody firm, which the bank chose as its custody partner in June 2022 under Citigroup's tokenized securities expansion initiative.

Ripple has been under the watchful eyes of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The regulator filed a complaint against the crypto company in December 2020 for alleged violations of federal securities laws by selling unregistered securities in the country.

Late last month, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse revealed in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that the SEC "plans to ask the judge for $2B in a case that involved no allegations (let alone findings) of fraud or recklessness." The crypto executive criticized the regulator for making "statements that are false, mischaracterized and designed to mislead." He then warned that Ripple will "expose the SEC for what they are when we respond to this."

Despite Ripple's legal woes, Garlinghouse sees the crypto market's value to balloon to $5 trillion by the end of the year due to multiple macro trends that indicate an upswing in the emerging sector.