The U.S. digital asset storer is opening a Swiss office to target institutional clients.
New York-based Fireblocks is hiring Richard Astle and Ana Santillan as co-heads in Switzerland, it said in an emailed statement on Tuesday. The two-year-old digital asset start-up recently raised $319 million including from BNY Mellon, and counts ex-Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton among its advisers.
Astle was with Bitcoin Suisse and subsidiary Swiss Crypto Vault until last year, while Santillan has worked for Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, and most recently, together with Astle, at crypto broker Covario in Zug.
Rapid Expansion
Swisscom's venture arm investment in a 2019 fundraising by Fireblocks, which is rapidly expanding in Europe and says it counts nearly 200 institutional clients in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. Internationally, it has more than 500 clients including Revolut and BNY Mellon.
«It's important for us to work with Swiss-based firms because they represent a major part of the financial market, as one of the world's leading financial centers,» Fireblocks CEO Michael Shaulov said.
