Japanese exchange Bitflyer is on a hiring spree, trying to tap talent from Wall Street. The company says coders can make $100,000, and plenty of employees earn $200,000. Besides already operating in three regions, the exchange is expanding into additional countries and adding more services.
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Number One Goal
Japan’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume, Bitflyer, is on a hiring spree. The company is eyeing traders and bankers from Wall Street, including from its CEO’s former employer, , according to Bloomberg. With on its platform, the number of Bitflyer employees “has doubled to more than 150 people in the past six months and is on pace to top 300 before year-end,” the news outlet detailed.
“At Bitflyer, we are actively recruiting talent in many occupations,” the company tweeted this week. CEO Yuzo Kano said in an interview:
My target is to be number one in the world…To get there, I need to grow headcount. And those with the best skills come from global banks.
Bitflyer is among the 16 crypto exchanges that have been approved by the Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA). Last month, the exchange its user verification process after reports of a discussion with the regulator.
Finding Talent and Expansion Plans
Yuzo Kano.
Kano believes that Bitflyer’s ideal finance recruits are either experienced bankers in their 40s tired of corporate bureaucracy or younger associates in their 20s.
The CEO explained that former traders and bankers are ideal for crypto firms because they understand how to operate in regulated markets, the publication noted, adding that coders “with a high school — or even middle school — education if they’ve got a track record of success at hackathons or coding tournaments” can make $100,000 at the exchange. According to Kano, “there are plenty of people at Bitflyer who earn more than $200,000 a year” and all full-time employees receive stock options which can be cashed out at any time.
Razin Ashraf, head of Tokyo-based recruiting firm Divine Solutions Japan, was quoted describing:
Crypto companies need finance guys to fill roles across the board: business development, sales, account management, operations, and compliance just to name a few.
Bitflyer currently operates in Japan, the , and . The company plans to expand into “Africa, South America, Australia and other parts of Asia,” the news outlet conveyed, adding that the exchange is also “expanding beyond crypto trading to businesses that include digital payments and a brokerage-advisory service for investors and startups interested in initial coin offerings.” Without giving a timeframe, Kano confirmed that Bitflyer is also planning an initial public offering (IPO).
What do you think of Bitflyer’s expansion plans? Do you think they will succeed in becoming the number one exchange? Let us know in the comments section below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Ascii, and Bitflyer.
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On Wednesday, May 9, Bloomberg with Galaxy digital Capital Management which is a digital asset management firm founded by bitcoin bull and billionaire Mike Novogratz. The duo has announced the launch of cryptocurrency index fund called Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index (BGCI) which will be tracking the performance of some of the biggest and most liquid cryptocurrencies in the market.
The index will be owned and managed by Bloomberg Index Services Limited in collaboration with Galaxy Digital Capital Management. Being a new member of the Bloomberg Index family, BGCI will provide the first institutional grade benchmark for the digital currency market. The Index will supposedly give a boost to the nascent crypto market giving more accessibility to the mainstream financial institutions.
The BGCI will be weighted on the market capitalization and will track the performance of some USD-traded digital currencies like bitcoin (30%), ethereum (30%), XRP (14.14%), bitcoin cash (10.65%), EOS (6.11%), litecoin (3.77%), dash (1.67%), monero (1.66%), ethereum classic (1%), and zcash (1%). The index will comprise of different crypto constituents across multiple categories including the medium of exchange, store of value, privacy assets and the smart contract protocols.
The two companies in a statement said that in order to determine the performance metrics of digital currency, they will be using a “rules-based methodology and data” based on sources that both companies have derived. However, the two companies refrained to give further details of this.
Alan Campbell, Global Product Manager for Bloomberg Indices said:
“Today’s launch of the Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index reflects our clients’ growing interest in cryptocurrencies. The index brings our rigorous approach to index construction to cryptos and will provide investors with a transparent benchmark to gauge the performance of the broader market.”
, CEO and Founder of Galaxy Digital Capital Management, said,
“The Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index brings unprecedented transparency to the crypto markets. We are excited to help drive the decentralized revolution forward through the creation of BGCI.”
In a Twitter message, Novogratz said: “The herd is on the move. This is an important piece of the architecture that institutional accounts need to treat crypto as a new asset class.”
So excited to announce our partnership with Bloomberg. The herd is on the move. This is an important piece of the architecture that institutional accounts need to treat crypto as a new asset class.
— Michael Novogratz (@novogratz)
Steve Kurz, Head of Asset Management at Galaxy Digital Capital Management also expressed positivity over the new partnership saying:
“We are thrilled to partner with Bloomberg on the BGCI. The index’s independent, rules-based methodology provides a strong foundation on which the cryptocurrency ecosystem will continue to grow and mature.”
Mike Novogratz, an ex Goldman Sachs executive, is quite a popular figure in the global financial space an will be launching a Galaxy digital “merchant-bank” on Canada’s TSX Venture Exchange. The bank will be involved in providing crypto services for trading, principal investing, asset management and advisory work.
Just the BGCI, world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange also announced the launch of its own earlier this year in March 2018. Several big institutional players have also been seen launching their crypto services and trading platforms much recently.
Financial juggernauts like and NYSE-parent are also working towards launching their own bitcoin trading platforms.
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