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Ex-Goldman executive to head cryptocurrency at family office

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Bitcoin and other virtual money. Cryptocurrency stock market graph on virtual screen. 3d illustration. Photo courtesy of iaremenko/iStock/Getty Images
  • Richard Kim was part of the Goldman crypto team
  • Will join Galaxy Digital, subsidiary of Mike Novogratz’s family office
  • Novogratz bullish on cryptos

Ex-Goldman Sachs executive Mike Novogratz has lured Richard Kim from Goldman to head the cryptocurrencies desk at his family office’s subsidiary, Galaxy Digital.

Kim spent almost three years at Goldman Sachs in London and was part of the team setting up the cryptocurrencies desk. Before that he was at J.P.Morgan for five years, according to his LinkedIn account.

Novogratz was a macro hedge fund manager at Fortress Investment Group from 2002 to 2015; he left Fortress when the funds were shut because of investment losses. Before that Novogratz worked at Goldman Sachs from 1991 to 2002.

Novogratz launched his family office Galaxy Group Investments in 2017 to focus on digital assets and blockchain technology.

At the time, Novogratz also was setting up a $500 million crypto hedge fund, putting in $150 million of his own money, according to media reports. Novogratz had been bullish on cryptocurrencies all through 2017; he predicted that Bitcoin would touch $10,000 at the end of 2017, and $40,000 by end of 2018.

Bitcoin did touch $10,000 in November 2017. But when bitcoin dropped under $11,000 from highs of $19,800 in December 2017, Novogratz announced that he was not going to launch his fund.

“Emotionally it didn’t feel right,” Novogratz told The Wall Street Journal.

This January Novogratz’s family office announced a new partnership with First Coin, an advisory firm to early-stage startups and companies, and a Canadian shell company to form Galaxy Digital LP to trade, invest and manage digital assets, and provide advisory services for digital assets.

The new entity plans to be publicly listed on the Canadian TSX Venture Exchange.

Novogratz has reportedly raised $250 million for Galaxy Digital.

His crypto net worth is between $700 million to $1 billion, according to Forbes that included him on its list of Cryptocurrency’s richest people earlier this year.

Other investment professionals at Galaxy Digital include Richard Tavoso, ex-RBC Capital Markets; Christopher Ferraro, who worked previously with HPS Investment Partners; Peter Wisniewski, from Del Mar Asset Fund; Yoshi Nakamura from Citi; and Luka Jankovic and Greg Wasserman, previously of Goldman.

Action Item: Read more about Galaxy here: https://bit.ly/2DMYvhp

Bitcoin and other virtual money. courtesy of iaremenko/iStock/Getty Images