Quick take:
- Former Goldman Sachs equity derivatives managing director Usman Naeem has joined Coinbase.
- The new hire is part of Coinbase’s push into derivatives trading.
- Usman spent eight years at Goldman Sachs before making the jump to Web3.
Former Goldman Sachs exec Usman Naeem has joined Coinbase as the global head of derivative sales and agency trading, according to his LinkedIn announcement.
Usman was a managing director in the equity derivatives division in Goldman Sachs, where he spent eight years. Prior to that, he was vice president in equity derivatives at Bank of America Merrill Lynch for five years.
In his new role, Usman will be working with Coinbase’s head of institutional Brett Tejpaul and Coinbase’s vice president of institutional products Greg Tusar and senior director Chris Rayner-Cook.
“I look forward to taking the leap into Digital Assets and working with Brett Tejpaul, Chris Rayner-Cook, Kevin Johnson, Greg Tusar and all the others, to deliver Coinbase’s purpose-led mission to increase economic freedom in the world,” he wrote in his LinkedIn post.
The new hire is part of Coinbase’s expansion into crypto derivatives trading after it acquired FairX, a futures exchange for individual traders, earlier this year. After the acquisition, FairX was renamed Coinbase Derivatives Exchange. The exchange is regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Usman is another example of TradFi bankers making the jump into digital assets this year. In March, former senior execs from financial services company Jefferies left to co-found Crossover Markets, a digital asset technology company that serves institutional clients.
As part of its hiring spree, MoonPay hired two C-level execs in July with a background in TradFi. Last week, digital asset custodian, Konaimu, appointed Nicolas Bertrand – formerly the head of derivatives markets and commodities at Italian stock exchange, Borsa Italia – as its new CEO.
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