Chicago based cryptocurrency trading and investment service provider Circle made an announcement recently stating that its head of trading division is set to resign from the firm. Daniel Matuszewski, the current head of trading division of Circle is responsible for overseeing the firm’s OTC marketplace.
Circle which is partially backed by Goldman Sachs is most commonly known in the crypto community as the parent firm of stable coin USDC and is also one of the largest OTC service providers in cryptocurrency market handling assets worth US$24 Billion per year. While the statement from the firm stated that Daniel is cutting ties with the firm to pursue a new entrepreneurial opportunity in the cryptocurrency industry, it lacked further details on what the new project is about.
However, the firm also announced in its statement that Daniel will be succeeded by Nick Gustafson – former chief of OTC trading desk at Kraken, another US-based crypto trading service provider. Daniel joined the firm as head of trading division back in 2017 as a successor to Joshua Lim who served as head of treasury and trading operations at Circle prior to his resignation. However, this move comes at a critical juncture for the firm which is currently looking to expand its business on global scale outside the highly regulated US markets. As part of its expansion plans, the firm launched a new licensed subsidiary in Bermuda and has branched out into wide range of crypto business verticals such as Circle Invest – a division which facilitates clients to purchase 11 different Crypto coins and Circle Trade, an OTC marketplace which handles turnover of nearly US$2 Billion per month.
The firm also owns a cryptocurrency exchange – Poloniex which trades over 100 cryptocurrencies and also acquired a FINRA licensed alternative trading system/equity crowdfunding platform named Seed Invest. There are rumours in the market currently stating that the firm is looking to apply for a banking license as well. According to an internal memo of the firm seen by Coindesk, Daniel had stated that Circle trade – their OTC trading desk was born as result of an accident and was initially responsible for providing liquidity for Circle’s retail Bitcoin payments app. However, as the market share of the firm grew on a large scale they gained the ability to provide liquidity to a whole array of counterparties outside the internal needs of just crypto firm Circle putting them on path to large scale expansion and increasing their product portfolio. Daniel’s successor Nick served as VP of investment banking division at Jefferies and as director at UBS prior to his tenure at Kraken.
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