David Kinitsky is an executive in the digital asset and financial services industries and currently serves as Chief Corporate Development Officer at Everstake. He has held senior leadership roles spanning corporate strategy, business development, operations, and executive management at companies involved in cryptocurrency infrastructure, digital asset investment, and financial technology. ^[1]

Education

Kinitsky graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2002. He then attended Cardozo School of Law, where he earned his JD in Intellectual Property in 2007. ^[2]

Career

Kinitsky began his career in business and legal affairs at Palm Pictures/Sanctuary Records, where he worked from 2002 to 2005 before joining the law firm Beigelman, Feiner & Feldman as an associate from 2006 to 2008. In 2009, he joined SecondMarket, holding roles as senior associate, director, and senior director through 2014, during which he contributed to the company's private markets business, including the expansion of its digital asset initiatives. In 2013, Kinitsky became general manager at Grayscale Investments, overseeing the firm's operations during its early years as a digital asset investment manager. He later joined Fidelity Investments, serving as director of research and innovation from 2015 to 2016 before being promoted to vice president of innovation, a position he held until 2018. During this period, he also served as a scientific advisor to the UCL Centre for Blockchain Technologies from 2016 to 2018.

Kinitsky joined Circle in 2018 as vice president of corporate development and strategy and was promoted to vice president of business development in 2019. In 2020, he moved to Kraken, where he served as chief executive officer of Kraken Financial before becoming managing director for the United States in 2022, overseeing the company's U.S. business until 2023. In 2023, Kinitsky joined Dominant Strategies as chief operating officer and served until 2025. He was appointed interim chief executive officer of Everstake in 2025 before assuming the role of chief corporate development officer in 2026, where he oversees the company's corporate development initiatives. ^[3]

Interviews

Everstake

In an August 2025 episode of the Brave New Coin podcast, Kinitsky discussed Everstake’s role as a non-custodial staking provider and his broader experience across the digital asset industry, including prior roles at Grayscale, Fidelity, Circle, and Kraken. He explained that Everstake, founded in 2017–2018 in Ukraine, had remained profitable and largely self-funded through significant challenges, including geopolitical disruption, before transitioning into a more structured growth phase with expanded professional operations. Kinitsky outlined the company’s multi-chain staking infrastructure, which spans more than 85 blockchain networks and includes validation services, open-source tooling, and white-label solutions for retail platforms, fintech firms, centralized exchanges, and institutional clients. The discussion also addressed the evolving regulatory environment, including recent U.S. guidance suggesting that staking activity may not constitute a securities offering, which he noted could help accelerate institutional participation. He further highlighted operational and compliance complexities associated with running global staking infrastructure, as well as growing interest from institutional allocators such as endowments and pension funds. Overall, Kinitsky expressed optimism about the maturation of staking as a financial primitive and its potential integration into mainstream financial products and services. ^[6]

Panels

Institutional Staking

At the Digital Asset Yield Summit in May 2026, Kinitsky joined Sam Gaer (Monarq) and Duncan Moir (21Shares) for a panel titled “The Institutional Staking Playbook: When ETFs Win, When Direct Wins, When to Blend,” which examined how institutional investors are navigating staking and yield strategies in digital assets. The discussion focused on the trade-offs between ETF-based exposure and direct staking, with ETFs described as offering regulated access, custody solutions, and liquidity benefits that appeal to smaller or more risk-averse investors, even if they may come with reduced yield potential. In contrast, direct staking was characterized as better suited to larger institutions with the operational capacity to manage custody, compliance, and governance requirements, particularly as the space's infrastructure continues to mature. The panel also explored hybrid approaches that combine ETF exposure with direct staking to balance flexibility and risk-adjusted returns. Despite acknowledging recent challenges in DeFi, including security incidents and reputational risks, the speakers expressed confidence that improved infrastructure, oversight, and institutional participation would drive broader adoption, with allocation decisions ultimately depending on each institution’s scale, resources, and strategic objectives. ^[7]