In the world of Formula 1 racing, a pit crew is a determining factor for success: speed, precision, and perfect coordination. This is also how Altius Labs builds its core team – bringing together veteran experts from around the world, combining the high-frequency trading (HFT) experience of Hudson River Trading with crypto veterans who have propelled platforms like Binance and Amber Group to billion-dollar valuations across multiple market cycles.

This team not only aims for maximum performance but also collectively drives the vision of advancing blockchain further. Below is a portrait of the key members of the Altius Pit Crew.

Annabelle Huang – CEO & Co-founder

As the visionary and strategist, Annabelle serves as the Team Principal in the F1 pit crew. She is responsible for leading the entire team, ensuring Altius not only crosses the finish line but also leads the race in blockchain.

A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, Annabelle started at Deutsche Bank as an investment banking analyst before venturing into crypto. With over seven years at Amber Group, she has gained in-depth experience in both DeFi and CeFi, directly facing infrastructure challenges such as high gas fees and network congestion. As a female leader in crypto finance, Annabelle is greatly influenced by her father in finance and her mother in physics – engineering, shaping her innovative approach. She is currently leading Altius to bring top-tier CEX experiences into decentralized blockchain.

Anit Chakraborty – CTO & Co-founder

If we consider Altius as a race car, then Anit is the Chief Engineer, designing and optimizing the 'engine' – the VM-agnostic execution framework – ensuring maximum performance without the need for specialized hardware.

With over 15 years in distributed systems, Anit previously worked at Hudson River Trading, where he built high-performance HFT systems at scale. He also holds several patents related to offline processing, supporting mobile applications, and edge network real-time processing. At Altius, Anit is pioneering enhancements in scalability and interoperability of blockchain, asserting a unique position in modularity and efficiency.

Angie Malltezi – COO

Angie serves as the Pit Stop Coordinator, responsible for operations, scaling, and handling complexities, ensuring that every 'pit stop' – from updates to integrations – runs smoothly and on time.

Coming from a neuroscience background, Angie later focused on macro market research and is now a strategic operator in crypto, capital markets, and finance. She is also the COO at Semiotic Labs, a researcher at MoonwalkerCap, with expertise in building sustainable operational systems even in volatile market conditions.

Ivan Paskar – Head of Growth & Community

If we liken Altius to a race, Ivan is the Track Strategist and Radio Caller – the one who drives growth, connects the community, and communicates timely information to maintain momentum.

Having been involved in Web3 marketing since 2017, Ivan previously served as Marketing Lead at Binance (2019–2025), helping the platform navigate DeFi booms and market fluctuations. With a diverse background, from memecoins to crypto learning communities, he now focuses on driving community-based growth for Altius, coordinating AMAs and motivating infrastructure solutions.

Ovunc Cetin – Core Developer

Like the Tire Changer in the pit crew, Ovunc takes on the precise and meticulous work, replacing and optimizing core components to ensure the system operates stably and accelerates smoothly.

At Altius, Ovunc focuses on developing the blockchain execution layer, building a scalable modular system while ensuring security – a crucial factor for high-throughput improvements.

Okan Alper – Core Developer

Okan is like the Jackman in the pit crew – responsible for heavy lifting, ensuring the framework of Altius is supported and stable during significant changes.

He specializes in engineering for parallel execution technology and VM-agnostic architecture, developing efficient, reliable code that supports sharded state management and concurrency control.

Matt Zago – Core Developer

Like the Pneumatic Gun Operator tightening every bolt, Matt ensures every detail in the codebase is solid for the system to operate stably at high speed.

Matt previously participated in a secret startup and has a strong background in blockchain. At Altius, he focuses on modular design, supporting integration of Altius with L1 and L2, providing smooth interoperability and outstanding performance, even achieving sevenfold acceleration.

Ihor Bielov – Marketing & Social Media Intern

Ihor is like the Signaller (Lollipop Man), waving the flags, signaling on social media, conveying messages, connecting the community and prompting timely action.

Known by the nickname leyzerok, Ihor is currently the Head of Communications at Ethereum Ukraine & ETHKyiv. With experience in marketing and business development, he is assisting Altius in communications, connecting Web3, and creating buzz for breakthroughs in the execution layer.

Conclusion

The Altius Pit Crew is not just a collection of technology and finance experts, but a smoothly operating system like an F1 pit crew – where each member plays a vital role. From the precision of HFT, the agility of crypto finance, to the ability to build a global community, all are aimed at one goal: to accelerate Altius and usher in a new era for blockchain.