William Quigley is an American enterprise capitalist and cryptocurrency entrepreneur who co-founded Tether and now serves as CEO of WAX, a blockchain platform constructed for NFTs and digital gadgets in video video games. His profession spans conventional enterprise capital, early web investing, and greater than a decade in crypto.
Who Is William Quigley?
William Quigley holds a Grasp’s diploma from Harvard Enterprise Faculty. That earlier profile moreover describes him incomes an accounting diploma from the College of Southern California, changing into a CPA, and being named a Kauffman Fellow, together with an early profession as a Senior Marketing consultant at Arthur Andersen advising banks on asset securitization and threat administration, adopted by a job at Walt Disney spanning finance, retail operations by means of Disney Client Merchandise, fairness investments, and service provider banking.
William Quigley’s Profession and Contributions
Quigley’s enterprise capital profession started at Idealab, described by one supply as essentially the most profitable shopper web incubator of the Internet 1.0 period, the place he led web incubation efforts and helped launch Idealab Capital Companions, an early shopper web enterprise capital fund.
He went on to co-found Clearstone Enterprise Companions, an early-stage agency valued at roughly $700 million that targeted on communications and shopper expertise investments. Via these ventures, Quigley made early investments in PayPal, NetZero, MP3.com, and GoTo.com.
In 2013, Quigley co-founded Crypto Foreign money Companions, described as the primary devoted cryptocurrency funding fund, with portfolio investments together with Coinbase, Kraken, Bitfury, Authy, ChangeTip, and Circle. Then, a 12 months later in 2014, he co-founded Tether, now broadly described as the primary fiat-backed stablecoin.
Different ventures embrace GoCoin, an early crypto funds processor, and he served as CEO of OPSkins, described because the world’s largest market for online game digital gadgets. He’s Managing Director of Cashel Enterprises, a cryptocurrency-focused funding car that has incubated and invested in additional than 40 Bitcoin, blockchain, and cryptocurrency ventures, in line with PG Connects, a scope broadly in step with Coinpedia’s separate declare of greater than 30 blockchain-related ventures.
He at the moment serves as CEO and co-founder of WAX, described as the primary purpose-built blockchain for NFTs, which grew immediately out of {the marketplace} infrastructure and buying and selling demand behind OPSkins, making use of classes from working a digital items market to a devoted blockchain constructed for buying and selling digital collectibles and in-game gadgets.
With the latest ventures cited, Quigley throughout his profession has persistently moved from figuring out a market inefficiency, whether or not in early web commerce, digital merchandise buying and selling, or dollar-denominated crypto settlement, to constructing devoted infrastructure to handle it, relatively than working primarily as a passive investor.
For profiles of different builders shaping the Web3 trade, go to our crypto personalities web page.
William Quigley’s Views and Positions
Quigley has continued to advocate publicly for Bitcoin, stablecoins, and NFTs, taking part in talking engagements at blockchain and gaming trade conferences.
He has expressed the view that the stablecoin trade nonetheless has vital room to develop, framing it as infrastructure that may give conventional finance simpler, quicker fee choices relatively than a purely speculative crypto product.
His public commentary has usually emphasised the sensible, infrastructure-building aspect of crypto, in step with a profession constructed extra round founding and funding corporations than round market commentary or value hypothesis.
For readers excited about Tether’s personal operational and audit historical past particularly, our protection of Tether’s first USDT audit with a Massive 4 agency covers a associated growth.
Often Requested Questions
Want a refresher? Listed below are the questions readers most frequently ask about William Quigley.
What’s William Quigley’s function at WAX?
Quigley is CEO and co-founder of WAX, described as the primary purpose-built blockchain for NFTs, a platform that grew out of his earlier work working OPSkins, a market for online game digital gadgets.
Did William Quigley co-found Tether?
Sure. Quigley co-founded Tether in 2014, broadly described as the primary fiat-backed stablecoin, alongside his different crypto ventures together with GoCoin and Crypto Foreign money Companions.
What enterprise capital corporations has William Quigley been concerned with?
Quigley co-founded Idealab Capital Companions and Clearstone Enterprise Companions earlier than shifting into crypto-focused investing, and at the moment serves as Managing Director of Cashel Enterprises, a cryptocurrency-focused funding car.
What different corporations has William Quigley based or led?
Past Tether and WAX, Quigley has co-founded GoCoin, Crypto Foreign money Companions, Idealab Capital Companions, and Clearstone Enterprise Companions, and served as CEO of OPSkins earlier than it advanced into WAX.
What does WAX truly do?
WAX is a blockchain constructed particularly for NFTs and digital collectibles, letting customers commerce online game digital gadgets and different digital belongings. It grew immediately out of Quigley’s earlier work, making use of that very same buying and selling demand to a devoted blockchain infrastructure.