Cryptocurrency Trading Platform Uphold Reshuffles Top Brass

Uphold, a platform offering cryptocurrency trading and digital asset debit cards, appointed Simon McLoughlin as its CEO. He takes over from J.P. Thieriot, who had held the position since late 2018.

McLoughlin has served as Uphold’s president and chief operating officer for the past three years. Thieriot, who joined the firm at its inception in 2013, becomes vice chairman, according to a press release.

"Uphold has enjoyed phenomenal growth under JP's leadership, which saw the introduction of the Anything-to-Anything trading interface," McLoughlin said in a statement. "We’re delighted to introduce, shortly, a new revolutionary interface to cement Uphold’s position as the easiest place to invest, pay, or spend its extensive range of digital assets instantly."

Uphold started life as Bitreserve, a wallet and payments platform. It was the brainchild of CNET founder Halsey Minor, who left the firm in 2018 to take the helm full time at Live Planet, a blockchain-enabled video-streaming service.

In May, Uphold fired its chief compliance officer who, the firm said, had made off with corporate and user funds totaling 516,242 pounds (US$732,495).