Banking Platform OpenPayd Hires Two Senior Execs From Crypto Prime Broker FalconX

OpenPayd, a banking-as-a-service (BaaS) platform, has made two senior appointments in London with the hiring of Lux Thiagarajah and Richard Usher from crypto prime broker FalconX.

Thiagarajah joins the payments firm as director of growth and Usher will be a director of trading, OpenPayd said Monday.

The new hires will retain links with FalconX, which they joined as recently as May, working as advisers to help the business build out its foreign-currency trading offering.

“Our FX desk is a distinct offering in the crypto brokerage space, and we’re grateful for Lux and Rich’s efforts in supporting our expansion,” a FalconX spokesperson said in emailed comments. “As advisers, they will continue to support our mission to make crypto capital markets more robust and ready for institutional adoption. In this next stage, we are focused on scaling the electronic FX trading platform and excited to have Hilal Mehydene join our growing FX team.”

Both are seasoned forex veterans. Thiagarajah was head of commercial FX at FalconX, before which he was chief revenue officer at crypto payments firm BCB Group. He also had stints at investment banks JPMorgan (JPM) and HSBC (HSBC), according to his LinkedIn profile.

Usher was previously FalconX’s head of FX trading and before that was in charge of over-the-counter (OTC) trading at BCB. He also worked at JPMorgan and the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), his LinkedIn profile shows.

“We are incredibly excited to be joining the great team at OpenPayd to help develop and drive the commercial and trading capabilities we can offer our customers, Thiagarajah said in a statement.