Offchain Labs, the team behind Ethereum L2 network Arbitrum, has appointed Ira Auerbach as head of its collaborative studio and venture capital arm, Tandem. Auerbach previously served as Nasdaq's head of digital assets and held leadership roles at cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, including global head of its major businesses. Ira Auerbach will lead the select blockchain projects supported by Tandem, which was launched last August to support initiatives to solve the "most intractable technical problems" hindering the widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies. Tandem is currently working on two projects with its partner studio: Espresso Systems, which is developing a decentralized sequencing infrastructure, and Ex Populus, which is developing a game-centric XAI blockchain.