The Algorand Foundation, the Singapore-based entity behind the Algorand protocol, has appointed Staci Warden as CEO with immediate effect.

Warden has served on the foundation’s board since September 2021, the foundation said in a statement today.Prior to Algorand she was an executive director at JPMorgan, running multilateral institution relationships in Europe, Africa, Russia and central Asia, according to her Linkedin profile. She has also worked at Nasdaq, where she oversaw the development of the exchange's listed trading platform for microcap companies, the BBX.“By both ratcheting up our global ambitions as well as doubling down on our commitment to the DeFi ecosystem, I know that we will deliver tremendous value for both the Algorand ecosystem as a whole and the end-users it supports,” she said in a statement.Current CEO Sean Lee said he is leaving the foundation to explore other career opportunities.Algorand, with a promise to improve remittances and payments using its blockchain, has attracted some significant interest from institutional investors. In June Arrington Capital, run by TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington, launched a $100 million fund to build on the Algorand blockchain.The Algorand Foundation also launched its own $300 million development fund in September.Algorand’s ALGO token was trading at around $1.04 for most of the week, according to CoinGecko, down from a high of $2.30 in mid-September.