Fred Ehrsam, co-founder of large crypto investment firm Paradigm, has stepped down as managing partner at the company and will act as a general partner going forward, he announced in a Tuesday post on X (formerly Twitter).
“This change allows me to carve out some time to explore areas of science that are of personal passion for me,” he wrote. “I’ll continue to work with our investing & research teams, work with portfolio companies, and fight for good crypto policy, while focusing less on the day to day management of the firm.”
Ehrsam co-founded the investment firm together with Matt Huang in 2018 after partnering with Brian Armstrong to develop crypto exchange Coinbase.
“I’ve spent more than a decade on crypto and I am more confident than ever that crypto will be one of the most world-changing technologies of the coming decades,” he said.
As for the areas of science he wants to explore, he explained: “There’s been a long pre-history of crypto interest in the frontiers of bio, from Hal Finney and cryogenics to Vitalik Buterin and Brian Armstrong’s more recent support of longevity research. I have personally been investing in and supporting bio research for several years and am excited to ramp up these efforts.”
The firm’s remaining managing partners are co-founder Huang and Chief Operating Officer Alana Palmedo. Earlier this month, Huang testified in the criminal trial of former FTX co-founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, telling his side of the story of how the former crypto exchange misled investors and caused Paradigm to lose $278 million from its investments in FTX.