US cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has hired a team of former Wall Street executives to work together in attracting institutional investors to the digital currency market. Coinbase has already onboarded a $20 billion hedge fund on its prime broker service, according to Business Insider.
Through the launch of its Coinbase Prime broker, the San Francisco-based company aims to convince institutional investors, venture capitalists, and hedge fund managers to invest in cryptocurrencies in order to establish digital currencies as a legitimate asset class.
The exchange recruited former New York Stock Exchange executive Christine Sandler to co-head its institutional sales as well as former Barclays (LON:BARC) trader Hunter Merghart as a sales trader.
"Coinbase is pursuing a lot of different initiatives that make sense and take it closer to or are more similar to traditional finance: custody, financing, lending, security tokens, and the institutional portal. They have the resources to fund them and will surely have some successes.", Commented Richard Johnson, an analyst at Greenwich Associates said.
The cryptocurrency exchange described Coinbase Prime as a “professional trading platform for institutional clients." A prime broker would provide dedicated services to institutional investors by removing the limitations in cryptocurrency trading.
“A dedicated team of institutional coverage professionals based in NYC will guide you through the onboarding process, advice on execution strategies, and deliver best-in-class client services and support,” Coinbase said in its website.
The exchange is already expanding its offices and is building teams in New York, Chicago, and London.
A few days ago, Coinbase announced it is acquiring Keystone Capital Corp., Venovate Marketplace Inc., and Digital Wealth LLC. in a bid to expand its operations to licensed brokerage and trading services.
This article appeared first on Cryptovest