Coinbase makes a key hire for a product aimed at luring Wall Street into the crypto market
- Coinbase, the cryptocurrency trading firm, has hired Sam McIngvale as its product lead for its custody product.
- McIngvale joins the San Francisco-based company from Apex, a Chicago-based clearing company.
The hiring spree at Coinbase is no joke.
The cryptocurrency trading firm has been hiring top talent from the Wall Street world at a fast clip. Now, Business Insider can report that the firm has hired a former exec from Apex, the clearing house.
Sam McIngvale joined Coinbase in March, according to his LinkedIn profile. McIngvale, who was the head of Digital Wealth at Apex, is the product lead of Coinbase's custody product.
The firm announced the launch of Coinbase Custodian, a custodian product for the crypto space that the firm is trying to scale to be the "State Street of cryptocurrency," in late 2017. Such a product would provide additional safeguards for storing crypto, which could lure in more institutional traders and firms to trade on its GDAX exchange.
McIngvale, who's career at Apex spanned half a decade, joins a number of other new hires from traditional financial services by Coinbase.
Since the beginning of 2018, the firm has brought on Hunter Merghart from Barclays as a sales trader. Also from Barclays, the firm hired Christine Sandler as co-director of institutional sales. It also hired Eric Scro from the New York Stock Exchange.