Crypto VC Firm Pantera Loses Co-CIO Joey Krug

Crypto-focused venture capital and investment giant Pantera Capital has reorganized its leadership, with the departure of co-Chief Investment Officer Joey Krug and the formation of an executive management committee, according to a letter sent out to limited partners on Friday.

Krug joined Pantera in 2017 to help manage the Liquid Token Fund. On a recent investor call, he revealed that the fund had lost 80% during 2022, taking a 23% hit in November alone in the aftermath of collapsed crypto exchange FTX. The letter didn’t specify why Krug was leaving.

“While Joey is a friend and we are naturally sad to see him leave, we expect the transition to be seamless,” Pantera founder and Chief Executive Officer Dan Morehead wrote in the letter. “His responsibilities will be absorbed by the Executive Committee and our deep bench of 65 experienced investment and operations professionals.”

The committee, which will have management oversight over the firm, includes Morehead, longtime partner Paul Veradittakit, and Jasper Lewitton, who joined Pantera last summer as president. Lewitton’s work history includes a decade-long stint at Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater Associates.

Morehead also used the letter to announce two new hires: Katrina Paglia as general counsel and chief compliance officer and Marc Selfon as chief financial officer. Paglia joined from Coinbase, where she worked as associate general counsel in support of the digital asset and exchange products. Selfon, who will join Pantera in April, spent over 13 years at private equity giant Apollo Global Management as a managing director in the credit and private equity divisions.

Morehead revealed in the letter that Pantera’s near-term roadmap includes launching a successor to its Blockchain Fund in the second half of 2023, reiterating plans laid out last year as the initial fund prepared to close with $1.3 billion in committed capital. The new fund will be called the Pantera Fund V because it will be the firm’s fifth venture-focused fund.

Read more: VC Firm Pantera's 2023 Crypto Forecast Says the Future Is DeFi