Ex-Robinhood Crypto COO Denisova Joins Stablecoin Issuer Agora

Tanya Denisova, who spent six years at Robinhood and ran the crypto unit's day-to-day operations, is moving to stablecoin infrastructure firm Agora as head of operations, the company said Tuesday.

She will also serve as chief operating officer of Agora's proposed National Trust Bank, a charter application pending before the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Agora CEO Nick van Eck announced the hire in a blog post.

Denisova left Robinhood in May. At the brokerage's crypto division, she oversaw settlement, liquidity, trading, execution quality, custody and wallet operations across regulated U.S. and European entities. Van Eck noted that when she joined Robinhood's crypto team it had three people. "Over her tenure they scaled operations to a multi-billion dollar business unit," he wrote.

Agora issues AUSD, a dollar-pegged stablecoin backed by reserves held by institutional asset managers. The firm targets fintechs, exchanges and other financial institutions seeking global dollar transfers, yield on idle balances and programmable payments on blockchain networks.

AUSD processed more than $20 billion in transfer volume during the first quarter of 2026, a 355% increase from a year earlier, according to the company. Agora said Denisova's experience scaling regulated crypto operations would be critical as the firm broadens its product offerings and regulatory footprint.

The company was founded by Nick van Eck and Drake Evans.