Early cryptocurrency investor, Mike Novogratz, has hired Goldman Sachs executive Richard Kim as the new chief operating officer of his merchant bank, Galaxy Digital, according to an individual familiar with the matter.
Kim, whose LinkedIn profile claims he had been an executive director based at the bank’s London office, joins Luka Jankovic, a former Goldman Sachs hedge-fund analyst, one of the lender’s alumni currently at Galaxy Digital.
Kim’s exit, initially recorded by Bloomberg News, is among a handful of high-profile adjustments from Goldman Sachs into cryptocurrency start-ups.
BlockTower Capital recruited former Goldman executive Michael Bucella in January. Former Goldman vice president, Matt Goetz, founded BlockTower last year.
James Radecki was a managing director at the bank and abandoned in 2016 to function in strategic investing at a different cryptocurrency firm, according to his LinkedIn page. He is currently worldwide head of business development at Cumberland Mining, one of the largest traders in the cryptocurrency markets.
A Galaxy spokesperson declined to comment on the hiring. Novogratz, that worked at Goldman Sachs throughout the 1990s, told reporters at The New Yorker the company “hired Goldman’s best guy in blockchain,” in an April issue. It’s uncertain whether he was speaking to Kim or a different executive
Bitcoin’s rise to nearly $20,000 in December has brought additional Wall Street traders and also a surge of new hedge funds in the space. The number of crypto funds rose to 245 this year up from 167 last year and only 19 firms in 2016, according to the latest figures from research firm Autonomous Next.
Galaxy Digital manages resources for blockchain-related ventures, including cryptocurrency.
Novogratz, who left Fortress Investment Group in 2015 after the fund lost money, told CNBC in November that bitcoin could multiply over four times by the end of this year.
“Bitcoin could be at $40,000 at the end of 2018. It easily could.” Michael Novogratz said on CNBC’s “Fast Money.” “Ethereum, which I think just touched $500 or is getting close, could be triple where it is as well.”
Bitcoin’s cost has fallen over 52 percent this season, after starting 2018 above $14,000, based on CoinDesk. The entire cryptocurrency marketplace has lost more than half of its market capitalization since the start of this calendar year, based on information from CoinMarketCap.
In December, Novogratz announced he would delay plans to launch what would have been the largest digital currency fund on record.
“We were supposed to launch on Dec. 15, and we paused,” Novogratz told CNBC late last year. “I didn’t like the market conditions as a starting point to take other investors’ money.”
“We are still feverishly building out a full merchant bank for crypto, i.e., I am still very bullish on the space,” he said.
