The current trend of transitioning from blockchain to artificial intelligence is not unexpected. Every week, there are reports of companies or individuals leaving the cryptocurrency industry or incorporating AI into their portfolios. Bitcoin miners are shifting their focus from mining to AI infrastructure, and venture capital firms are now investing in AI companies rather than crypto firms. However, it is unusual for the leading members of the same team to leave one company and join another.
This is precisely what has happened to the senior marketing team at crypto exchange Coinbase, with six members joining San Francisco-based OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, over the course of a year. Although Coinbase has a large marketing team, with 150 staff members, the loss of six senior roles is notable.
The migration of marketing talent to OpenAI began with Sarah Russell, who joined as VP of integrated marketing and operations in November 2024. Russell had previously worked at Coinbase as senior director of integrated marketing and had also worked at Facebook's Menlo Park headquarters.
A month later, Kate Rouch became OpenAI's chief marketing officer, having spent three and a half years in the same role at Coinbase. Rouch had also worked at Meta for over 11 years as the global head of brand and product marketing. Elke Karstens joined OpenAI as head of international marketing in March 2025, after spending three months at a London-based paytech startup called Finom.
Karstens had also spent over 10 years at Meta in various marketing roles. In September, two more transitions occurred: Kaitlin Gianetti became head of integrated marketing management at OpenAI, and Amy Robbins joined as brand insights lead. Gianetti had spent four years as director of integrated marketing at Coinbase and had also worked as a brand marketing executive at Meta. Robbins had spent three and a half years as senior manager of insights at Coinbase.
Most recently, Nina Mogavero joined OpenAI in December 2025 to work in marketing strategy and operations, after leaving Coinbase where she had spent three years in marketing and strategy. According to a person familiar with the situation, the exodus was no coincidence, with Kate Rouch being the key figure in enticing former Coinbase colleagues to join OpenAI. A Coinbase spokesperson downplayed the departures, stating that the marketing team at Coinbase is over 150 people and that the loss of some staff members to OpenAI is a normal part of personnel movement.
OpenAI did not respond to requests for comment. The shift from crypto to AI is not limited to marketing, as Tom Duff Gordon, the former VP of international policy at Coinbase, left to become OpenAI's head of EMEA Policy. Other Coinbase alumni have also joined OpenAI, and the company is not the only machine learning firm to attract Coinbase marketing talent. Sarah Wolf, the marketing lead behind Coinbase's Base layer-2 network, left after nearly five years at the exchange to head startup marketing at AI lab Anthropic.