Jared Grey steps down as head of SushiSwap, transitioning to an advisory role after leading the DEX since 2022

Jared Grey, who served as head chef and managing director of Sushi Labs, announced on Monday that he would transition into an advisory role.

Alex McCurry, who is the founder of Solidity.io and currently leads investment firm Synthesis, will take over as managing director following Synthesis’s investment in SushiSwap.

The leadership change will see Grey step down after more than three years of leading the SushiSwap decentralized exchange through leadership transition challenges, platform exploits, and regulatory scrutiny since its founding in 2020.

Grey’s departure comes as SushiSwap achieved profitability in 2024, “generating over $10M in revenue across our AMM, aggregator, and related products.”

“Leading Sushi has been a dream role, and I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished, even though there’s so much more work to do,” Grey wrote in a post on X. “Even though I’m stepping down from my leadership position, I remain committed to providing strategic guidance to Alex and the team.”

SushiSwap docks in stability harbor after high turbulence

Grey took the helm in 2022 after months of internal turmoil that saw several leadership changes. The protocol was founded as a fork of Uniswap during the 2020 decentralized finance boom but then faced instability following the departure of its pseudonymous founder and lead developer, Chef Nomi, who withdrew $14 million from the project and later returned it with an apology to the community.

With Grey at the helm, he steered SushiSwap through a regulatory minefield that came to a head with an SEC subpoena in 2023. He focused on streamlining operations, saying, “During my tenure, we weathered a severe regulatory regime and streamlined operations.”

Grey wrote, “On the product side, the team built one of the industry’s most distributed and performant aggregators, expanded our multi-chain reach by supporting 20+ new network launches.”

Some of the key developments during his tenure included the launch of Blade, a novel automated market maker (AMM) product, and a partnership with the Katana network, a DeFi-focused Layer 2 blockchain backed by Polygon that launched in June 2024.

The Katana integration “has accumulated over $100M in TVL on the Sushi app alone, positioning Sushi as core liquidity and routing infrastructure for emerging ecosystems,” according to the SushiSwap team.

Grey also mentioned their collaboration with the Ekubo Protocol. SushiSwap was the first licensee of the Ekubo multichain AMM infrastructure, with Grey stating in that announcement that “There’s no better partner for our AMM vision than the industry’s leading team in concentrated liquidity and AMM tech. We’re excited to work together and continue growing our ecosystems.”

Ambitious growth targets

McCurry brings entrepreneurial credentials to the role, having built and scaled software businesses to eight-figure revenues. His firm Synthesis’s investment signals confidence in SushiSwap’s prospects despite increasing competition in the decentralized exchange space.

“I am super excited to be joining SushiSwap, leading the protocol is a dream opportunity,” McCurry wrote on X, adding that “Sushi has strong PMF and an opportunity for an ambitious roadmap.”

SushiSwap mentioned in its announcement on X that its revenue target will be increasing, writing, “With Synthesis’s backing, our goal is to scale this to $20M+ in annual revenue over the coming years, with a focus on disciplined growth, clear execution, and sustainable business fundamentals.”

McCurry stated that aggressive execution would be necessary to capture market share as the cryptocurrency market matures.

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