Opendoor Technologies $OPEN ( ▲ 0.16% ) is ripping higher this morning after the online real estate company announced that Lucas Matheson, the CEO of Coinbase Canada, will step in as its next president. Investors are once again leaning into the idea that leadership changes could help engineer a turnaround.
Management reshuffles have been a major catalyst for Opendoor over the past few months. Shares logged a record one day gain of nearly 80% on September 11 after the company revealed that cofounders Keith Rabois and Eric Wu were rejoining the board and that Shopify COO Kaz Nejatian would take over as CEO. Matheson’s resume fits neatly into that narrative. He worked at Shopify from 2016 to 2021, overlapping with Nejatian for two years.
According to the company, Matheson will oversee corporate development, financial planning and analysis, and a slate of emerging strategic initiatives. That includes Opendoor’s exploration of blockchain technology and tokenization as potential ways to open up new paths to homeownership.
That last point is what really has traders paying attention. Speculation around real estate tokenization has been well received in the past, largely because it could make Opendoor’s home inventory more liquid. More liquidity would reduce balance sheet risk and potentially allow the company to scale transaction volumes without taking on as much exposure.
Opendoor also used the announcement to lock in Christy Schwartz as its permanent CFO after she served in the role on an interim basis since September. CEO Kaz Nejatian said the company conducted a broad search before deciding Schwartz was already the right person for the job, citing her deep understanding of the business and ability to move quickly.
Bottom line: Opendoor’s rally is less about near term fundamentals and more about renewed confidence that a revamped leadership team, plus a possible blockchain angle, could finally change the trajectory.