Michael Nagle/Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloo
Usman Naeem on Wednesday announced he’s leaving his role as managing director at Goldman Sachs Group to join Coinbase Global’s institutional arm for its derivatives efforts. Naeem will serve as global head of derivative sales and agency trading at Coinbase, led by Brett Tejpaul, according to a LinkedIn post by Naeem. Based in London, he spent eight years at Goldman, most recently in equity derivatives. He also worked at Bank of America Merrill Lynch from 2009 to 2014, according to his LinkedIn profile. A Coinbase spokesperson confirmed the appointment with Bloomberg. Coinbase has been laying the groundwork to expand into derivatives for months. In January, Coinbase announced its acquisition of the futures exchange FairX, which is registered with U.S. regulators. It is awaiting approval for its futures commission merchant license to offer futures directly to U.S. users. In June, Coinbase extended a hiring freeze and laid off 18% of staff as the market downturn worsened. Individuals from major financial firms such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and BlackRock, were among those who had employment offers rescinded by Coinbase. The company has since renewed some hiring, including for its overseas expansion. — Yueqi Yang, Bloomberg News