A newly launched crypto trade group, which includes heavyweights Square and Coinbase, is looking for new leadership

• The newly launched Crypto Council for Innovation is looking for a new boss, DealBook first reported.
• The trade group includes heavyweights such as Square, Fidelity, Coinbase, and Paradigm.
• CCI's executive director Gus Coldebella is stepping down.

The newly launched Crypto Council for Innovation, an industry group that includes heavyweights such as Square, Fidelity, Coinbase, and Paradigm, is looking for a new boss, DealBook first reported Friday.

Gus Coldebella, who started and led the alliance as the executive director is stepping down. Coldebella, who is the chief policy officer at the investment firm Paradigm, is leaving that post as well.

"With CCI now on its feet, I thought the timing was right to take on a new challenge," he told DealBook Friday.

CCI was convened by San Francisco-based Paradigm, founded in 2018, which invests in crypto-assets and businesses from the earliest stages of formation through maturity.

The alliance, formed in April, was meant to boost the potential of cryptocurrencies by educating policymakers, regulators, institutions, and individual investors on the benefits of digital assets, which have seen exponential growth in recent years.

It also aimed to debunk many "wrong impressions" the public may have towards cryptocurrencies through government relations, public education, and research publication, according to its website.

The news of CCI's hunt for new leadership comes as authorities are mulling ways to increase oversight of the crypto space.

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon urged regulators to scrutinize cryptocurrencies more closely at a recent congressional hearing and blasted the digital coins as inferior to traditional assets.

"Something that's not supported by anything, I do not believe has much value," he said.

Cryptocurrencies have struggled since bitcoin peaked at the time of Coinbase's listing on April 14, which many viewed as a milestone for the digital asset space. Extreme volatility in the past two weeks has slashed bitcoin's market cap nearly in half.