# Alex Leishman

> Alex Leishman is the founder, CEO and CTO of River, a Bitcoin-focused financial services company founded in 2019. An aerospace engineering graduate of the University of Maryland with a Stanford computer science master’s, he previously worked at Deloitte, MaiCoin, Airbnb and Polychain. He serves on Brink’s board and has advocated in-house custody, proof of reserves, public company financials and support for open-source Bitcoin development.

- **Role:** Founder, CEO & CTO at River
- **Organizations:** River, Brink, Polychain Capital, Polychain Labs, Airbnb, MaiCoin, Deloitte, SF Bitcoin Devs
- **Education:** Degree in Aerospace Engineering, University of Maryland, Master’s in Computer Science, Stanford University
- **Known for:** Founded River in 2019., Helped teach Stanford’s first Bitcoin class under Dan Boneh., Led River through its 2021 team expansion and 2023 Series B.

## Career timeline

- **2013** — Discovered Bitcoin through an online programming assignment; moved from Maryland to San Francisco at the end of the year.
- **2014** — Worked as an early engineer at MaiCoin.
- **2015-2017** — Studied computer science at Stanford and helped teach the first Bitcoin course under Dan Boneh.
- **Before 2019** — Worked in Airbnb security and on investment and engineering teams at Polychain.
- **2019** — Founded River.
- **2021** — River grew from 8 to 45 employees and raised a $12 million Series A.
- **2023** — River raised a $35 million Series B led by Kingsway Capital.
- **2024** — Introduced River Proof of Reserves in September.
- **2025** — River announced developer fee waivers and published its 2024 financial statements.
- **2026** — River introduced banking features through Lead Bank; Leishman spoke against gambling-oriented financial apps.

## Achievements

- Founded River in 2019.
- Helped teach Stanford’s first Bitcoin class under Dan Boneh.
- Led River through its 2021 team expansion and 2023 Series B.
- Serves on the board of Bitcoin developer nonprofit Brink.
- Announced River Proof of Reserves in 2024 and public financial statements in 2025.
- Built KrakenRuby with other open-source contributors.

## Latest updates

- **2026-08** — Appeared with Natalie Brunell to discuss institutional and individual Bitcoin buying and selling using River client data.
- **2026-07** — Discussed Bitcoin banking and River’s operating decisions with Isabel Foxen Duke.
- **2026-04** — Delivered a Bitcoin 2026 keynote criticizing the overlap of financial apps and gambling.
- **2026-04** — River introduced banking features with services provided by Lead Bank.

## Links

- Website: https://river.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexanderleishman/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/Leishman
- GitHub: https://github.com/leishman

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/alex-leishman
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-11