# Alexander Leishman

> Alexander Leishman is the Founder, CEO, and CTO of River, a Bitcoin-only financial institution built to provide brokerage, custody, and mining services to individuals and institutions. With a background spanning aerospace engineering at the University of Maryland, computer science at Stanford, and security engineering at Airbnb, Leishman co-founded River in 2019 after stints at MaiCoin, Deloitte, and Polychain Capital. River has raised over $17.7 million in venture funding and became the first Bitcoin-only exchange to publicly release its financial statements in April 2025. Leishman also serves on the board of Brink, a Bitcoin research and development nonprofit.

- **Role:** Founder & CEO at River
- **Organizations:** River, Brink
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** Bachelor's in Aerospace Engineering, University of Maryland, Master's in Computer Science, Stanford University
- **Known for:** Co-founded River, a Bitcoin-only financial institution that raised over $17.7M in total venture funding, Teaching assistant for the first Bitcoin class ever taught at Stanford University under Professor Dan Boneh, Led River to become the first Bitcoin-only exchange to publicly release financial statements as a private company (April 2025)

## Career timeline

- **2014** — Early engineer at MaiCoin, Taiwan's largest digital asset exchange - identified and fixed security vulnerabilities, built merchant APIs
- **2014-2016** — Teaching assistant for the first Bitcoin class at Stanford under Professor Dan Boneh while completing Master's degree
- **2016** — Security Software Engineer at Airbnb
- **2017-2018** — Management Consultant at Deloitte
- **2018-2019** — Investment and engineering work at Polychain Capital and Polychain Labs, focusing on Bitcoin-related venture investments
- **2019** — Co-founded River Financial with Andrew Benson, serving as CEO and CTO
- **2021** — Led River's $12M Series A funding round, backed by Goldcrest Capital, Polychain Capital, Craft Ventures, M13, Castle Island, and The Kraft Group
- **2024** — Joined the board of Brink, a Bitcoin research and development nonprofit funding core developers
- **2025** — River became the first Bitcoin-only exchange to publicly release its financial statements as a private company
- **2025** — Spoke at the Bitcoin Policy Summit in Washington D.C.

## Achievements

- Co-founded River, a Bitcoin-only financial institution that raised over $17.7M in total venture funding
- Teaching assistant for the first Bitcoin class ever taught at Stanford University under Professor Dan Boneh
- Led River to become the first Bitcoin-only exchange to publicly release financial statements as a private company (April 2025)
- Built proprietary Bitcoin custody systems rather than relying on third-party custodians - a rare feat in the industry
- Grew River to 140+ employees and a regulated financial institution serving individuals and institutions
- Board member of Brink, supporting Bitcoin core development and research
- Early engineer at MaiCoin (2014), one of the earliest Bitcoin exchanges in Asia
- Speaker at major Bitcoin conferences including Bitcoin Policy Summit 2025 and Adopting Bitcoin 2022

## Latest updates

- **2025-04** — River released public financial statements, becoming the first Bitcoin-only private exchange to do so
- **2025-03** — Alexander Leishman spoke at the Bitcoin Policy Summit in Washington D.C.
- **2024-07** — Joined the board of Brink, a Bitcoin R&D nonprofit supporting core developers
- **2025-01** — Appeared on 'What Bitcoin Did' podcast discussing quantum threats to Bitcoin, self-custody, and security

## Links

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

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/alexander-leishman
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-27