Our client is an AI-native trading infrastructure platform engineered across five integrated commercial pillars — a structural difference that defines the company:

Exchange — spot trading, price discovery, market-executed swaps, order management, and fee-tier execution
Automated Investing — AI strategy access with capital allocation, monitoring, and risk controls across tiered subscriptions
Intelligence — signals, sentiment, DOM tools, research, AI Copilot, and quant workflows across Core, Pro, and Elite tiers
Managed Trading — platform-managed capital on a 70/30 investor-platform profit split
Licensing — B2B commercialisation of proprietary technology, dashboards, and institutional tooling

Our client's native token operates as the utility layer across all five pillars — fee discounts, staking, governance, and a buyback-and-burn engine funded directly from platform revenue. Supply is fixed, minting is permanently disabled, and there is no admin upgrade path. A utility-backed token, not a narrative-backed one.

The senior team is already in place: a CTO concurrently leading a major Tokyo-based digital asset and proprietary trading operation, a Head of Data Science & AI, a Senior Trading Developer, and a COO. The build is milestone-gated, with audits, custody, KYC/AML, and treasury controls already specified.

THE OPPORTUNITY

Our client's founder is appointing a CEO to take operational ownership through TGE, production readiness, and the first commercial cycle — freeing the founder to focus on product direction, token strategy, and longer-horizon positioning.

This is not a turnaround and not a zero-to-one product build. The platform, team, tokenomics, and milestone-gated delivery plan are already defined. The incoming CEO inherits a credible engineering roadmap and operating discipline.

The defining question of this cycle is no longer whether AI can be applied to trading — it is which platforms make AI-driven strategies accessible, credible, and commercially durable across retail and institutional audiences. Our client is structured to answer that question with a multi-revenue-stream model that does not depend on a single speculative event.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Technical Delivery & Launch Execution

Own delivery of the milestone-gated build through to production readiness — execution engine, exchange baseline, token contracts, custody and treasury rails, compliance stack, staking and buyback automation, intelligence layer, margin and liquidation engine, and market making infrastructure
Hold the milestone acceptance discipline: written sign-off per milestone, ≥80% backend test coverage, ≥90% smart contract coverage, no open Critical or High defects
Lead the TGE technical launch sequence — audits, custody activation, liquidity, market makers, and exchange listings (DEX → mid-tier CEX → tier-one) as coordinated activation events
Drive exchange liquidity strategy from launch through scale — market maker partnerships, spread optimisation, fee-tier design, and the operating metrics of a healthy exchange (uptime, latency, depth, slippage, fill rates)
Maintain operational integrity of the buyback-and-burn engine, staking safeguards, treasury flows, and revenue routing

Strategy & Growth

Hold P&L accountability across all five pillars, sequencing activation so each layer reinforces the others
Convert exchange volume into compounding revenue: token-linked fee discounts driving adoption, intelligence subscriptions deepening engagement, automated investing capturing recurring revenue, managed trading and licensing unlocking institutional surface
Build a community-first growth engine across Discord, Telegram, and X — converting passive followers into active participants anchored to verifiable utility
Track both SaaS metrics (CAC, LTV, ARR per pillar) and crypto-native indicators (on-chain activity, wallet retention, holder behaviour, staking participation)

Regulatory & Compliance

Navigate an evolving global regulatory environment — MiCA, the GENIUS Act, and cross-border compliance — ensuring legal certainty across key markets
Treat compliance as a competitive advantage, upholding existing controls: audited contracts, multi-signature treasury, immutable audit logging, and milestone-gated delivery

Team, Capital & Brand

Lead the existing senior team and recruit additional commercial leadership as the company moves from build to scale
Close the current capital phase and position the company for any post-TGE strategic capital
Act as the external face across media, conferences (Consensus, Token2049, ETHDenver), and partner channels
Establish an ownable market narrative — positioning our client as the reference point for AI-native trading infrastructure before competitors define the category

CANDIDATE PROFILE

Required Background

The successful candidate must have personally led the launch and scaling of an exchange — CEX, DEX, or PerpDex — with verifiable, attributable impact on user growth, liquidity, and revenue. This is non-negotiable.

Our client is looking for an operator who has lived the full arc of bringing an exchange to market:

The deeply technical end — matching engine architecture, order book and liquidity mechanics, custody integration, market microstructure, latency and uptime discipline, market maker relationships, and exchange-grade KYC/AML operations
The commercial and go-to-market end — launch sequencing, token and listing strategy, market maker negotiations, liquidity bootstrapping, user acquisition, retention, institutional onboarding, and the narrative work that converts a technical launch into a credible market presence

Generalist crypto executives, advisors who have observed exchange launches without operating them, or senior leaders whose exchange experience sits at a single layer of the stack will not be considered. The seat requires fluency across the entire spectrum — the founder and CTO will expect to engage at both registers from week one.

The strongest profiles will combine this exchange-launch foundation with experience bridging TradFi credibility and crypto execution.

Also of Strong Interest

A COO or operating lead at a smaller exchange, instrumental in its launch and scaling, ready to step into a CEO seat with full P&L ownership
A founder of a crypto exchange or trading platform who personally drove the build, launch, and scale — bringing a hands-on mentality and direct understanding of the operating model

Skills & Attributes

Deep technical specialisation in exchange operations across the full stack, combined with the GTM specialisation to scale through a first commercial cycle
Working knowledge of crypto market structure, token economics, custody, and the evolving regulatory landscape
Hands-on experience designing community-led growth: referral programs, staking incentives, and launch sequencing that builds authentic engagement
Technical literacy sufficient to engage credibly with the CTO and Head of Data Science from week one
Exceptional communicator — able to translate complex AI and crypto concepts for non-technical audiences without losing register with crypto-native ones
Entrepreneurial bias for action, comfortable operating inside an existing milestone-gated discipline rather than replacing it
High commercial acumen with a data-driven approach to both SaaS and crypto-native metrics
Demonstrated commitment to transparency and ethical leadership

MARKET CONTEXT

The AI-powered crypto trading sector is entering rapid maturation:

The question is no longer whether to use AI in trading — it is which platforms make AI-driven strategies most accessible, credible, and durable
Retail investors now demand verifiable utility, transparent tokenomics, and sustainable mechanics before committing capital
Institutional participation has professionalised expectations around compliance, reporting, and custody
Single-product ventures face structural pressure from platforms operating across multiple revenue streams
Community has become core infrastructure, not a marketing afterthought
Token launch sequencing matters; successful projects build from DEX through to tier-one CEX placements as coordinated activation events

Our client is structurally positioned to capitalise on these trends. The incoming CEO will determine the speed and scale at which that structural advantage converts into commercial leadership.

CEO AI-native trading infrastructure

Apply for job