Bankers continue to come from traditional financial roles to Blockchain related projects. Leaving behind them a salary of up to seven figures shows a strong belief in the future of digital currencies.
The lure of a young but quickly maturing marketplace is growing stronger.
From somewhat ‘early adopters’ like former JP Morgan executive Blythe Masters - known for her prodigy climb and creating the modern credit default swap - became CEO of Digital Asset Holdings.
Cointelegraph recently covered former Morgan Stanley’s top man venturing into cryptocurrency. One time Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack seeks to launch his own ICO for a project that will make cryptocurrency investing more accessible to the traditional investor:
“I have been watching and investing in the cryptocurrency market over the last several years... We think Omega One is going to be transformative because it benefits the entire ecosystem - making crypto assets cheaper and easier to access.”
New role models
Nikolay Storonsky is heading the London startup Revolut. The prepaid debit card aimed at lowering fees for travelers announced after a fresh $66 mln funding that is rolling out cryptocurrencies to users, while expanding Asian markets at the same time.
Most recently Bloomberg reports Richard Liu is leaving his seven figure salary to focus on ICO related finance. Leaving China Renaissance where he is known to have closed multimillion dollar tech deals. Liu says:
“Traditional investment banks and VCs need to monitor this space closely, it could become very big… Unlike the traditional financial sector, there are no ceilings or barriers. There’s so much to imagine.”
Gavin Yeung, former Hong Kong Deutsche Bank trader says that it is very hard to value a protocol [or token/currency] as the protocol only gains value if the number of users increase. There is clearly a risk of landing up with an asset which has zero value.
While more traditional traders and financiers eagerly enter the space, these Wild West days are not without risk.
Regulation is nearing
Companies have raised a whopping $1.25 bln by way of ICOs collectively this year alone.
Just days after Charles Hoskinson, co-founder of Ethereum before the fork of Ethereum and Ethereum classic signaled in a recent interview that the SEC is bound to come knocking sooner or later.
SEC came down on the booming ICOs in what is mostly a warning at this point in time. Regulation is around the corner, and with the amount of money being thrown around, necessary.