The number of former bankers entering the digital currency marketplace in one form or another keeps growing. Some well accomplished examples are ex-JP Morgan Blythe Masters and former Barclays CEO Antony Jenkins just to name a few.
Ex-Credit Suisse trader and his startup Revolut
Former banker secures millions in funding to spread reach and product from fiat into digital currencies. Nikolay Storonsky, trader turned startup founder, has secured an investment of $66 mln in order to expand his banking startup Revolut into offering clients digital currencies alongside fiat.
Before the London based startup, Storonsky was an experienced trader having worked at Lehman Brothers in emerging market derivatives and Credit Suisse as an equity derivatives trader.
Bloomberg points out:
“As early as next week, it plans to let customers hold, exchange, spend and transfer virtual currencies such as Bitcoin, Litecoin and Ethereum for free, profiting from the price differences between buyers and sellers as opposed to charging commission.”
The ex-Credit Suisse trader is one of many exiting traditional finance to move into digital currency startups. Companies in the space quickly grow, with some big names backing.
Currently, Revolut offers an application and physical card targeted at travelers using different currencies but with the benefit of circumventing [usually hidden] fees. Storonsky claims that customer acquisition is already at over 80,000 users since the 2015 launch.
Around 140 employees work at the company in London, Krakow and Moscow and plans to open in New York and Singapore with an additional 20 staff.
The case of Goldman Sach’s Circle
The new market is offering customers the benefits of digital currency while clients face fiat is quickly forming, and very competitively at that.
On the other side of the Atlantic, Goldman Sachs Circle is a similar product on the market and while users are currently only looking at fiat, traders backend profit by trading cryptocurrencies.
CEO Jeremy Allaire says:
“We’re putting forward this hybrid fiat-digital currency model, which gives users the benefits of digital currency - instant settlements, global interoperability, no fees and high levels of security - but without having to use a new currency.”