Michael Gronager, co-founder and CEO of blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, has stepped down temporarily from his leadership role after a decade at the helm, The Block reported on Friday.
According to a source close to the matter, Gronager has been on “personal leave” since September 25, citing a personal issue. While the move is described as temporary, Gronager has not shared further details about his leave or when he might return.
In the meantime, Sari Granat, the company’s president and chief operating officer, has taken over as interim CEO. Granat, who joined Chainalysis in April 2022 from IHS Markit, brings extensive experience from her role overseeing sales, finance, human resources, legal, and operations. She is working closely with Chainalysis co-founder and chief strategy officer Jonathan Levin to lead the business during Gronager’s absence.
Gronager’s sudden leave comes shortly after he gave interviews at Token2049 in Singapore, raising questions about whether his departure is related to health concerns, internal company dynamics, or other factors.
Earlier in October, Chainalysis laid off 15% of its workforce, marking its second round of job cuts in 2023. The company, which specializes in analyzing and tracking cryptocurrency transactions for risk-management purposes, previously axed around 40–50 employees as part of a reorganization in response to challenging market conditions. Prior to these layoffs, the company had roughly 900 employees.
The startup, which has offices in New York, Washington DC, Copenhagen, Singapore and Tokyo provides financial institutions, cryptocurrency exchanges and law enforcement with a platform to detect and investigate cryptocurrency money laundering, fraud and compliance violations.
Additionally, Chainalysis is selling its bitcoin-tracing technology and compliance software to banks and brokers to monitor and link digital identities to cryptocurrencies.
US authorities disclosed that they leveraged Chainalysis investigative assistance to seize more than $1 billion worth of bitcoin associated with Silk Road, the shady dark web marketplace that it took offline in 2013.
Chainalysis raised $170 million two years ago in a Series F funding round that values it at $8.6 billion. The decent valuation came less than two years after the NYC-based company first attained the ‘unicorn’ title back in November 2020.
