Former global head of electronic trading at Goldman Sachs and co-founder of Tagomi has been appointed VP of institutional products at crypto platform Coinbase.
Greg Tusar joins the digital asset exchange as part of its recent acquisition of the crypto prime broker, which Tusar co-founded and served as chief technology officer.
He has been tasked with building Coinbase’s institutional offerings and trading infrastructure, while integrating the Tagomi prime brokerage platform with its product suite.
“Greg’s experience in both electronic trading and execution as well as trading infrastructure make him uniquely qualified to guide Coinbase’s institutional products as more professional traders and funds seek to allocate portions of their portfolios to crypto assets,” said Surojit Chatterjee, chief product officer at Coinbase.
Tusar has more than 30 years’ experience in various electronic trading, technical infrastructure and market structure roles. Besides leading electronic trading globally for Goldman Sachs for 13 years since 2000, he has also previously headed up client market making and execution services for KCG, now part of Virtu Financial.
Coinbase added that Tusar’s appointment comes as the crypto exchange progresses its engagement and focus on institutional investors. The company confirmed in May it would acquire crypto prime brokerage Tagomi as investors and funds are increasingly looking to engage with digital assets.
Large crypto platforms such as Coinbase have made moves recently to acquire digital asset prime brokers, as the significance of offering the function to attract institutional investors to the space became clearer.
“We’ve seen a swell in demand from institutional investors over the past year, driving tremendous growth in our Coinbase Custody offering and increased volumes on our trading platforms,” Coinbase said upon announcing its acquisition of Tagomi. “The addition of Tagomi will round out our product suite for the fast-growing institutional trading market.”