Crypto Hedge Fund Quantreq Expands Staff with Wall Street Hires

The self-described “first crypto fund-only administrator” has hired several traders and bankers from established finance firms as the company embarks on ambitious plans to increase its managed asset base which claims to be over $1 billion.

Quantreq, the blockchain spin-off from the US-based fund administrator North Street Global, has poached David Goldstein, a 20-year veteran of HSBC to serve as Chief Operating Officer. Another new addition is Josh Gibson, who worked for Citibank’s institutional FX desk in New York, as the company’s new Head of Capital Markets .

Quantreq is far from the only crypto firm to poach talents from Wall Street with other operators onboarding more people this year despite the deflating market. In addition, the latest hires also come amid a flurry of activity from banks and mainstream finance companies as they begun to seriously assess cryptos as a potential new investment class despite poor price performance this year.

Last week, we reported on Coinbase adding a longtime serving executive from the San Francisco-based financial services giant Charles Schwab Corp.

Coinbase and other crypto exchanges acknowledge that part of the reasons for being focused on hiring executives from Wall Street is to deal with the strict regulatory conditions of acting as a licensed cryptocurrency exchange in the US. The companies are also scaling up to meet future demands from the institutional market.

Commenting on the appointments, Quantreq CEO Alex Mascioli, said: “We are extremely bullish in cryptocurrency and the fact that more institutional firms are coming into the market is a reinforcement that it is here to stay. With Fidelity’s big announcement this week and Goldman Sachs further investing in the space via BitGo, investment in experienced human capital to serve our institutional clients is a priority.”