Balaji S. Srinivasan, founder of Earn.com and CTO of Coinbase, publicly announced his exit from the company in a pair of Tweets last night.
âCoinbase was fun and it was energizing working with so many great people. Iâll be taking a bit of time off to get back in shape â and up to speed on everything happening while I was heads down,â he wrote. âMore soon!â
âThe Earn integration was successful and weâve closed ~$200M in deals for the new Coinbase Earn. Was also my privilege to help with shipping new assets, launching USDC, & getting staking/voting going.â
Coinbase bought Earn.com in 2018 and made Srinivasan CTO after months of rumors. Earn started as the secretive and well-funded 21E6 aka 21.co which released a mining product before pivoting to a service that paid users for answering questions.
Srinivasan is Stanford graduate who holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and a masterâs in Chemical Engineering. A rumored misfit in the organization led to the exit.
âWe are very grateful to Balaji for all of his contributions to Coinbase,â wrote a Coinbase PR spokesperson. âHis efforts over the past year have had a major impact on the trajectory of the company. Heâs on to his next challenge and we wish him well.â
2/2 Coinbase was fun and it was energizing working with so many great people. I'll be taking a bit of time off to get back in shape â and up to speed on everything happening while I was heads down. More soon!
â Balaji S. Srinivasan (@balajis) May 4, 2019
Srinivasanâs exit is one of many that happened after the companyâs $300 million raise.
Balaji Srinivasan image via CoinDesk archives