Facebook’s Top Crypto Engineers Leave to Join Andreessen Horowitz’ Crypto Team

Two top officials of Facebook working on its blockchain and digital currency project have jumped ship to join the crypto team of Andreessen Horowitz, CNBC reported.

Riyaz Faizullabhoy will serve as a 16z Crypto’s Chief Technology Officer, and Nassim Eddequiouaq will take the spot as Chief Information Security Officer respectively, after two years on Facebook’s digital wallet Novi.

Andreessen’s crypto team in June announced a $2.2-billion cryptocurrency-focused fund, with Faizullabhoy noting his dedication to advancing the crypto space in the past decade.

Facebook’s crypto unit, formerly named Calibra, has yet to show many developments in the space, after being announced in 2019 along with digital currency Libra. Both were scheduled to be launched in 2020, but have yet to be released.

Before their stint at Facebook, the two individuals were part of a digital asset bank start-up, and they are set to work on a more complex set of issues than what was offered by Facebook.

Eddequiouaq noted crypto is a “once-in-a-generation” shift in technology with “unlimited potential.” FB is down 2.19%, BTC down 1.54%, ETH down 2.90%, and XRP down 5.72%.