Cory Johnson, who joined Ripple Labs on March 9th, 2018 as the company’s chief market strategist, has reportedly left his role at the San Francisco-based fintech firm.
Although it’s currently not clear why Johnson has parted ways with Ripple, it appears this his role was eliminated by the company. While working for Ripple Labs, Johnson had acted primarily as a spokesperson for the firm. Commenting on Johnson’s involvement with Ripple as a market strategist, a representative from the company said:
Cory’s last year at Ripple was a success in representing the company to investors, press and regulators. Cory helped Ripple with strategy internally and overall industry education. But due to changes in market conditions, we’ve chosen to eliminate the role of Chief Market Strategist.
Ripple “Doing Better Than Ever Before”
During his time with Ripple, Johnson had been a vocal supporter of the company’s suite of financial products – including its token, XRP. In early December 2018, Johnson had acknowledged that XRP’s price had dropped considerably from its all-time high in late 2017 and early 2018. However, he argued (at a “CryptoMondays” event in San Francisco) that Ripple, the company, was “doing better than ever before.”
He claimed (at that time) that Ripple Labs had “seen the sales cycle go from a new customer every six weeks to two new customers a week.” According to Johnson, “Ripple has over 150 banks and financial institutions that [were] using [its] products on the software side.”
While it remains unclear why Johnson’s role was “eliminated”, however Ripple Labs does not appear to be downsizing. In fact, the company is planning to hire more employees as it has posted several new position requirements on LinkedIn. Currently, Ripple is looking to hire a senior UI software engineer, senior director for project management, a human resources business partner, among other new vacancies.
According to Coindesk, an engineer who has chosen to remain anonymous told the news media firm that he received a job offer from Ripple Labs (in “late 2018”) in which the tech firm promised him XRP tokens worth $3 million, in addition to a generous overall compensation package.
“Aggressively” Hiring For Other Roles
XRP-related bonuses for prospective employees at Ripple Labs reportedly range from at least $1 million to $6 million. This, according to the firm’s “own evaluation.” In September 2018, another engineer, who had also decided to remain anonymous, had revealed that he received an email from Ripple in which the company offered him XRP bonuses worth an estimated $3-$6 million.
Despite the extended bear market, Ripple is reportedly planning to “aggressively” hire new employees, in order to further expand its operations. Notably, a spokesperson from Ripple has said the firm hired 100 new staff members in 2018. A representative from Ripple remarked:
We move fast to acquire the best talent out there – especially considering the highly competitive nature of other startups who want to hire similar candidates.
