CEO shakeup at crypto L2 startup Morph, Cecilia Hsueh to step down

Morph, the L2 incubated by Bitget, aimed to be a contender in the modular blockchain space. 

However, it hit a series of road bumps, as Blockworks previously reported, and is now facing another shakeup: the departure of a CEO.

CEO Cecilia Hsueh told Blockworks she’s moving into an advisor role.

Hsueh has yet to publicly announce her departure from the blockchain startup, but said she privately told the leadership at the startup behind Bitget’s L2 that she planned to step down in March of this year.

“Since I’m the face of Morph, I don’t want to create too much damage [for] Morph,” Hsueh explained in an interview. “For the past two [to] three months, I haven’t really been involved [in] the daily operation too much.”

However, she said that she only told employees about the upcoming changes after a Blockworks investigation was published last month.

A dozen current and ex-employees spoke to Blockworks about the work environment at Morph, including alleged power struggles between Hsueh and co-founder Azeem Khan. 

The source also told Blockworks that they felt both Hsueh and Foresight Ventures partner Forest Bai were at the helm of Morph. Foresight is both the venture arm of Bitget and an investor in Morph. Bai also serves as chair of The Block. 

Blockworks previously reported that Bai had been added to Slack in February, prior to Hsueh stepping aside, and employees had been asked to add him to Ecosystem and Marketing meetings, per a Slack message seen by Blockworks. 

Bai, people familiar said, acted as more than just an investor, with multiple people referring to him as a “shadow CEO.”

Morph, Hsueh added, will now be led by Colin Goltra, who was previously the chief growth officer. Bai will also stay on as a consultant, she said. Prior to the publication of the report, Hseuh said she had planned to make a formal announcement in June. 

Hsueh said that Goltra was a “great” successor.

“He has been in the space for more than 10 years, so even more experienced than me, and he’s very close to both Asia and also Western markets,” she told Blockworks. 

Goltra told me he joined Morph at the beginning of this year. 

“Dragonfly, their talent team, kind of connected me in with Cecilia and Morph,” he said. “In Late February, Cecilia decided to take a step back and sort of initiate…a transition of power.”

Since then, Goltra has worked with Bai and other members of the leadership team to make the transition happen. 

Goltra said that Bai “doesn’t really have a formal role,” but has been a “key part of this transition.”

Hsueh said she’ll stay on as an “external advisor” to Morph, though she clarified that her role would be different from Bai’s consultant role. 

Goltra said that Bai’s long-term goal is to “not be very involved going forward,” but added that, due to the transition, he’d played a heavier role in Morph.

Morph, Hsueh said, has a “stable team” now, which helped her make the decision to step down after experiencing a “health problem” linked to her sleeping. 

As for the future of Morph, Goltra wants to continue focusing on consumer crypto but wants to be more specific in the L2’s approach. 

“I think our first approach to that will be onchain consumer finance,” he explained. “Stablecoins…are having a moment. We’ve added on a ton of DeFi. We really want to make a big play in payments.”

As he takes on the CEO role, Goltra said that he’s spent the last few quarters focusing on what consumer crypto means and the direction he thinks will make Morph more successful. 

They plan to focus heavily on Asia, but also the US. The team would love “to expand that to more of a global mandate beyond that, but Asia and US are our best for now.”

Goltra declined to comment on the timing of a token launch, but told Blockworks that he’s looking at things “month to month,” mostly because the beginning of this year was choppy, and not ideal for a token launch in his eyes.

The team is also not currently seeking to raise a Series A. “We retain the right to do so at some point,” but it’s just not a focal point for the L2 right now.

“I think we’ve definitely focused a lot on financial discipline, checking burn, checking expenses, and how we spend money on certain things. And so I think we’re in good shape,” he noted.

For now, Goltra plans to support a positive culture at Morph and potentially continue to add more folks to the team.

Jack Kubinec contributed reporting.

Updated Monday, June 2 at 2:03 pm ET: Modified for clarity.

Updated Monday, June 2 at 1:46 pm ET: This article and headline have been updated for clarity.

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