BitMex, one of the largest cryptocurrency derivatives exchanges in the world and a pioneer in this field, has announced the hiring of Marc Robinson as Head of Custody as it pushes to offer more services and products apart from derivatives.
Marc brings with him over 20 years of experience in the financial services field, most of which was spent in Japan. He had been in IT but then moved to more front-on roles with JPMorgan, Nomura, and others. He had also worked with the giant SBI Holdings on the board of SBI Japannext where he was at the forefront of building a virtual currencies exchange.
“Marc is another high calibre recruit, joining us at a time of significant expansion,” said Alex Höptner, Chief Executive Officer of 100x Group. “His background in traditional financial services combined with his experience in digital assets – particularly his knowledge of custody – is the perfect blend to help us deliver one of the big planks of our growth strategy.”
He had also been responsible for building out the Custody, Prime Brokerage systems over at SBI Holdings and it is this key experience that Bitmex would be banking upon as it extends its growth beyond derivatives. Recently, BitMex had announced its plan to expand its offerings as it looks to offer spot trading on its platform. The company also plans to start a licensed brokerage to offer principal and OTC trading services.
In the crypto world, as more and more big investors enter into the field, custody of the crypto assets is going to become a key growth area in the years ahead. The company also plans to launch a licensed and proprietary custody solution for its users. Apart from these, the company has also spelled out its intent to launch other information products and also an educational academy to educate the users about the crypto ecosystem. But, BitMex has been under great scrutiny from regulators in recent times and this may provide some headwinds for its plans.
“BitMEX is at a really exciting point in its journey and I’m thrilled to be joining such a talented team under the leadership of Alex Höptner. Custody is an integral part of the ‘beyond derivatives’ ecosystem. The digital asset landscape continues to gain momentum both for retail customers, as well as institutional clients, and so it’s important that we work towards providing them with a regulated, fully licensed, custody offering. We want to create a standalone custodian service, building on BitMEX’s well-deserved reputation for world-class security, that allows assets not only to be secure but also allows clients flexibility with their funds” said Marc.
These are indeed exciting times for people in the blockchain and crypto fields as these domains look set for massive growth in the coming years and we are just getting started.
