Galaxy Digital Purportedly Recruits Former Head of OTC at Coinbase

Tim Plakas has left the major United States crypto exchange Coinbase to join the cryptocurrency bank founded by Michael Novogratz, Galaxy Digital, an anonymous source purportedly told The Block on May 28.

Plakas’ departure follows four senior executive departures from Coinbase in approximately the last seven months.

Plakas reportedly held the position of over-the-counter (OTC) trading head at Coinbase from July 2018 to January 2019, and will be joining the OTC team at Galaxy Digital.

Novogratz’s crypto bank is a member of Crypto OTC Roundtable Asia (CORA) Network, a non-profit collective of companies that want to improve the Crypto OTC sector.

As previously reported on Cointelegraph, Coinbase Custody — the custodial arm of Coinbase — recently made its first trade from cold storage with Coinbase’s OTC desk.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong discussed in February how cold storage does not necessarily sacrifice the agility of an investor’s assets that is provided by hot storage. Armstrong also notes that while hot storage security methods can be quite good, he does not think relying on them heavily as an attractive option:

“With hot storage there are a lot of details that you need to get right to keep the funds safe. Is it possible to get all those details right? Yes, and I’m comfortable using hot storage for reasonable amounts. [...] Do I want to bet my entire business on all those details being right indefinitely? Probably not.”