Just two days after being promoted to vice president, Chris Matta left investment giant Goldman Sachs last December to focus exclusively on his Crescent Crypto Asset Management crypto fund. As unusual as its step may seem, so much is the transition from the highest floor of banking to the crypto world. These days, more and more bankers are taking the plunge into the untapped crypto-finance industry - among them many alumni from Goldman-Sachs.
Turning your back on a digital Wall Street future - many a financial veteran will shake your head tiredly at this thought. Nevertheless, this seems no longer a strange picture for a long time.
Such a rigorous jump as Chris Matta dared in December, however, dare few. Only two days after his lucrative promotion to the vice of investment giant Goldman-Sachs, he sank into the sails and set new course. Together with former colleagues, he has since devoted himself entirely to the investment fund Crescent Crypto Asset Management, founded in 2017. They had launched this last year at the previous peak of Bitcoin euphoria:
"You can say in good conscience that you leave a decent sum of money when you leave Goldman. But I saw that as a calculated risk ",
Matta describes to CNBC the above all financially consequential career decision that many bankers face.
"You called the manager and he basically meant, are you crazy? Are you aware of the risk you are taking? You're leaving your bonus! '"
Matta, however, was not deterred.
Crypto forge Goldman-Sachs
However, he is not alone with his decision to turn his back on Wall Street and turn towards the current wild West of finance.
More and more Goldman bankers these days are taking the step away from security and big money towards the digital crypto-currency business. Investing legend Mike Novogratz has pioneered the step into the digital market. He currently leads his own crypto-bank, Galaxy Digital.
The most notable member of this squad is no lesser than ex-Goldman vice and Trump advisor Gary Cohn. As reported last week, the former head of the National Economic Council, like his former colleague, plans to set up his own bank for cryptocurrencies. After leaving Wall Street, he had intervened at the White House, but announced his resignation in March.
While more and more bankers seek their luck in the digital, the hike, however, also takes the opposite direction. Meanwhile, banks, led by Goldman, have decided not to let the cryptocurrency business pass. For example, at the end of April, Justin Schmidt, the leading US investment bank, had recruited a trader directly from the crypto sector for the first time, thereby fueling speculation about how to enter the digital payment market. Such were loud last year. The bank reportedly planned its own cryptocurrency trading section, but Goldman denied it.
Matta: "The most exciting months of my life"
Months after his decision, the courses of Bitcoin & Co. look much less rosy than the euphoria Crescent Cryptos hoped for the first hour. Nevertheless, Matta is convinced of his decision. Even despite a difficult first half of 2018, one is in good spirits that the jump will make it affordable, so Matta.
"Either we end up at zero or far above. I do not regret the step at all. Honestly, the last months have been the most exciting of my life. "
If his experiment succeeds, Chris Matta will not be the last banker to leave Wall Street behind in favor of cryptocurrencies.