Former chief executive of Grayscale Investments, Michael Sonnenshein, has been appointed as the chief operating officer of tokenization platform Securitize.
According to an announcement, Sonnenshein joined the company on Dec. 9, several months after stepping down from the asset management firm in May 2024.
Over the past few months, Sonnenshein has been advising fintechs and blockchain firms. His LinkedIn profile shows roles as an adviser in five companies: Scholars of Finance, Stocktwits, Arch, Sodot and Aptos Labs.
Sonnenshein is behind the first publicly traded Bitcoin (BTC) fund — the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), converted into an exchange-traded fund (ETF) in January following approval by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Michael Sonnenshein. Source: Bloomberg Crypto
A few months earlier, in August 2023, Grayscale won a legal case against the SEC over the conversion of its trust into an ETF. SEC Chair Gary Gensler later recognized the court ruling was crucial to the Bitcoin fund’s debut on Wall Street.
Securitize has emerged as one of the top players in the tokenization market in 2024. It has established key partnerships with BlackRock, Hamilton Lane, Wormhole, Elixir, and Ethena, to name a few.
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The company provides tools and services for the issuance, management, and trading of tokenized securities, such as stocks and bonds. In May, it secured $47 million in funding in a round led by BlackRock with the participation of Aptos Labs, Paxos and Circle.
In his new role, Sonnenshein will focus on building relationships with asset managers, as well as marketing, sales, and distribution. According to The Wall Street Journal, the company sought an executive who understood both traditional financial services and digital assets.
“There is massive demand for tokenization, and I am thrilled to join Securitize at such a pivotal moment for the company and the industry,” Sonnenshein said in a statement.
Securitize is said to have moved over $1 billion in real-world assets onchain.
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