Former Nasdaq digital belongings head Ira Auerbach has joined Arbitrum developer Offchain Labs to guide Tandem, the Ethereum scaling undertaking’s enterprise capital and partnership division.
Auerbach brings in depth expertise from conventional finance and crypto, beforehand serving as Senior Vice President and Head of Digital Property at Nasdaq.
Earlier than that, he held management positions at Gemini, together with International Head of Gemini Prime. Auerbach’s earlier profession additionally consists of roles at Palantir Applied sciences, BGC Companions, and BNP Paribas.
The appointment reveals how conventional finance expertise is shifting to construct on crypto rails whereas leveraging their previous experiences from Wall Road.
Auerbach will oversee Tandem operations as a companion studio and enterprise capital arm, offering chosen initiatives with technical experience, analysis help, financing, and go-to-market technique help.
Tasks below Tandem will work instantly with Offchain Labs’ government staff and core builders, additionally recognized for creating Prysm, an Ethereum consensus consumer.
“We’ll maintain in depth conversations with initiatives we really feel obsessed with,” Auerbach instructed Decrypt, including that Tandem would supply its assets “on a case-by-case foundation relying on the precise wants of the undertaking.”
Having been concerned within the trade since 2017, Auerbach mentioned he feels lucky to have seen the ecosystem “from many alternative sides.”
The Princeton-founded firm has spent over six years on blockchain analysis and growth, specializing in scaling options by way of merchandise like Arbitrum Orbit, Stylus, and Arbitrum Nitro.
These efforts throughout the Arbitrum ecosytem are pushed by various wants, Auerbach famous. Their work by way of Tandem is geared toward figuring out the place they “can add probably the most worth, and construct the connection from there,” he mentioned, including that they may help initiatives by way of “steering on analysis, engineering, product roadmapping, strategic partnerships, or capital contribution.”
Roughly three years since its launch, Arbitrum and the protocols round it have maintained a lead amongst Ethereum Layer 2 options, capturing over 1 / 4 of the sector with $2.8 billion in whole worth locked, rating knowledge from CoinGecko exhibits.
Wall Road abilities going onchain
Roughly 56% of Fortune 500 executives say that their corporations are engaged with blockchain initiatives, in response to a 2024 trade report printed by Coinbase.
As compared, 48% of the executives surveyed consider that crypto has “the potential to extend entry” to the monetary system to create wealth.
However the shift can be occurring the opposite manner round.
Crypto initiatives are conventional finance abilities to increase their initiatives for institutional choices, stablecoins, and ecosystem compliance.
Current examples embody Galaxy Digital naming Tony Paquette as its new chief monetary officer. Paquette beforehand labored at Point72, a hedge fund, and Financial institution of America’s Company Investments Group and Treasury division.
Digital asset administration agency BitGo additionally tapped Ben Reynolds in November final 12 months. Reynolds was the previous president of Silvergate Financial institution.
Reynolds’ former financial institution was concerned within the U.S. banking disaster in 2023, affecting main crypto corporations providing institutional companies.
Edited by Sebastian Sinclair. Up to date so as to add feedback from Ira Auerbach.
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