2 of the largest crypto exchanges have snagged veteran Wall Streeters as they build out businesses to lure in billion dollar investors

Frank Chaparro

Aug 8, 2018, 19:26 IST

2 of the largest crypto exchanges have snagged veteran Wall Streeters as they build out businesses to lure in billion dollar investors

Two of the largest players in the crypto space have snagged employees from top Wall Street banks for similar roles, according to people familiar with the matter.
Amy Yu, who previously worked in sales for synthetic products at JPMorgan, joined BitMEX to head up institutional sales.
Meanwhile, Lauren Abendschein, formerly a director at Credit Suisse, has joined as a manager of institutional sales.
Both will be tasked with luring more large players in financial services to their respective markets.

Count this as another sign that the cryptocurrency space is growing up.

Both BitMEX and Coinbase, two of the largest market places for crypto, have snagged veteran Wall Streeters as the firms vie for more business from large traditional financial services companies, people familiar with the matter tell Business Insider.

Hong Kong-based BitMEX is a platform that offers peer-to-peer trading of leveraged bitcoin contracts, while Coinbase is a US-based cryptocurrency exchange operator best known for its brokerage unit. Both have been building-out their services to attract large investors.

As for BitMEX, the firm has brought on Amy Yu as head of institutional sales, according to people familiar with the situation. She joins the firm from JPMorgan where she worked in sales for synthetic products.

A BitMex spokesperson confirmed the hire.

Meanwhile, Lauren Abendschein, formerly a director at Credit Suisse, has joined Coinbase as a manager of institutional sales, according to people familiar with the hire.

She is joining the team in New York, which has been building out its white-glove broker business aimed at getting large firms onto Coinbase's venue. Notably, the firm recently onboarded a $20 billion hedge fund onto its platform, as Business Insider previously reported.

Abendschein, who worked in Credit Suisse's prime business, will play a role in building out the prime business Coinbase is looking to get off the ground as soon as year-end.

Offering so-called white-glove services to large institutions - from face-to-face meetings to block trades - is one way exchanges are trying to lure larger investors to the nascent market for digital currencies, market experts says.

Kiran Nagaraj, KPMG's leader of cryptocurrency services, said larger investors need to be supported on crypto-specific issues such as managing crypto forks - when a crypto splits into two - for them to enter the market in a serious way. Big investors, Nagaraj says, don't want to be concerned with the technicals.

"They're in the investment business," he said. "They can't hold their own private key. Maybe you'll find some that'll do it, but they are looking for market exposure. They don't want to deal with the operations."