These Wall Street Executives are Leaving for Big Time Blockchain Jobs

While there are some who think blockchain and cryptocurrency are nothing but the latest versions of the “Greater Fool’s Theory,” others think they will be the way of the future — and give the analogy of the internet in the late 90s.

The million-dollar question is: what is the motivation for those jumping the train to ditch their top positions, especially those jumping from Wall Street into Blockchain?

While these may not be all the reasons, the facts speak from the figures. Here’s a list of important points worth noting:

• The global market of blockchain is expected to be worth $20 billion by 2024, according to prnewswire.com
• Blockchain startups raised $290 million in the first Quarter of 2016, according to businessinsider.com
• $8-$12 billion is the reported potential annual savings for banks utilizing blockchain, according to slashdot.org
• 69% of banks are experimenting with permission blockchain according to techinasia.com
• 762,608 Bitcoin transactions across the Blockchain from Sept. 3rd-10th, 2018, according to bravenewcoin.com.

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All this being said, highlighted below are some high profile individuals that have left their million dollar jobs at Wall Street to pursue blockchain and cryptocurrency:

CHRISTOPHER MATTA

Matta’s move into the blockchain space is an intriguing one, having just earned himself a high-profile position in Goldman Sachs.

He had just gotten a promotion to the position of Vice President. Then, two days later, he decided to announce his departure from the financial investment firm after six solid years and went on to create a cryptocurrency hedge fund. The CEO of Goldman Sachs asked if he was crazy for making such a decision. Matta told CNBC that he considered it to be a “calculated risk.”

Matta and his partners (whom he also took from Goldman Sachs) are aiming to gather a whopping sum of $50 million in assets to their firm.

AMBER BALDET

Baldet announced on the 3rd of April through her Twitter handle that she would be leaving her company — JPMorgan. She is making a move so that she can start her own company, Clovyr. She headed JPMorgan’s blockchain and smart contract unit. Clovyr is the blockchain application for the deployment of product to the cloud and can also serve on-site for developers.

Baldet is featured in Fortune’s “40 Most Influential People Under the Age of 40” and as well CoinDesk’s “10 Most Influential In Blockchain Sphere.”

ALESIA HAAS

Haas was the chief of hedge fund Och-Ziff, having worked with Merrill Lynch and OneWest Bank. She gathered a lot of experience from her previous employment as she was in charge of tax, treasury, internal audit, and more. The organization had assets worth $32.7 billion under her time of employment.

Haas will be working with one of the biggest cryptocurrency exchangers and wallet providers — Coinbase.

ANDRIAN XINLI ZHANG

Andrian Zhang works with the Deutsche Bank AG in New York, USA. The 29-year old was on his way to becoming the Director at his place of work. Then, after making a fortune in Bitcoin, he decided to leave the German bank.

Zhang, who happened to trade during his spare time, is reported to have traded cryptocurrencies assets worth more than $1 million last year.

BREANNE MADIGAN

A topmost Goldman Sachs executive, the veteran has spent her 13-year-career with the investment bank, but that didn’t stop Madigan from joining the Wall Street exodus to Blockchain start-ups. At the firm, she has served as an associate in the money market and then climbed the ladder of success to become the Chief Operating Officer of Global Foreign Exchange. It is estimated that she had over $1.5 trillion assets under her management while she was the head of the Institutional Wealth Service Team at Goldman Sachs.

The talent is moving where the money is. Despite the exodus, those remaining at Wall Street firms are still going full-speed ahead with developing blockchain. Some of those firms include:

FIDELITY INVESTMENT

With assets of $2.3 trillion, the mutual investment company is one of the largest in the US. The firm had been experimenting with blockchain technology when it first partnered with Second Market’s Bitcoin investment. Also, later in the year 2015, Fidelity Investment filed for exchange service and e-wallet. They have also conducted a lot of research in the cryptosphere and mining operations.

JP MORGAN

After years of development, in the year 2016, JP Morgan launched its blockchain smart contract platform — Quorum. It was designed to affect bank operations like cross-border payments, and may potentially be adopted by other banks as a yardstick for Wall Street.

While the list is not exhaustive, it is certainly safe to say that blockchain is not disappearing anytime soon, rather — its full potential will be revealed and more sectors and spheres will welcome its adoption as it continues to attract high level Wall Street talent.