BitGo Hires Wall Street High-Frequency Trader as Head of Financial Services

Published at: May 9, 2019

Blockchain security and cryptocurrency custody firm BitGo has appointed a veteran Wall Street trader as its head of financial services, according to a press release published on May 9.

The new hire, Nick Carmi, joins BitGo after a reported 25 years of experience as a financial executive. His most recent role was as Global Head of FICC Business at the high-frequency trading firm Tower Research Capital — founded by former Credit Suisse proprietary trader Mark Gorton.

According to a statement from BitGo CEO Mike Belshe, the hire was spurred by an intent to forge a stronger connection between technologically innovative digital assets and the traditional financial sphere. The CEO outlined that the new head of financial services “brings a wealth of industry knowledge and has built these types of systems before.” He added:

“Nick will be critical to our future progress, helping us meet the existing needs of traditional clients while also helping us build a better financial market of the future in ways that can only be done with digital assets.”

According to the press release, Carmi’s previous role saw him running Tower Research Capital’s FX and FI businesses, where he was reportedly tasked with overseeing operational risk, prime brokers’ leverage and counterparty trading limits, as well as fostering access to new products that included NDFs, CCY Options and cryptocurrencies.

Before Tower, BitGo’s new head of financial services was reportedly director in Listed and OTC Clearing Sales at Deutsche Bank, where he was involved in the establishment of Fixed Income Prime Brokerage for Treasury and Repo services as well as aiding Deutsche Bank’s Equity Derivative Franchise to build an OCC clearing service.

His earlier experience reportedly spans experience at multiple financial institutions globally, including Barclays, Lehman Brothers, UBS and Credit Suisse.

As reported just yesterday, European crypto exchange Bitstamp has hired a former Coinbase executive with years of experience in the world of traditional finance, including at Barclays and at institutional-grade financial company RBC Capital Markets. The new hire will serve as Bitstamp’s head of United States operations.

In late April, BitGO sealed a further security certification from Big Four auditor Deloitte, after a review of its compliance, having been found to fulfil the requirements for a service organization control (SOC) 2 Type 2 certification.

Also in April, BitGo began providing its custody and multi-signature wallet services to a newly launched, institutional investor focused digital asset trading platform, LGO Markets.

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