Crypto Prime Brokerage Recruits Ex-Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Exec

A traditional finance veteran (TradFi) with more than two decades of experience at bulge-bracket banks JPMorgan and Wells Fargo is jumping into crypto.

Digital assets prime brokerage Floating Point Group has tapped Peter Eliades – who most recently led electronic trading sales for Wells Fargo – to oversee business development in the US and across Asia Pacific.

Eliades told Blockworks that the impact of cryptocurrency across “traditional media, sports, sponsorship [and] game” has become “increasingly clear”. The growing influence of digital assets in traditional spheres “awakened by extension [Eliades] to the opportunity to explore something new and innovative, he said.

The executive’s focus on crypto stemmed from investing personal capital in an effort to “learn more about the benefits of digital markets and their pain points.”

Eliades was vice president of Lehman Brothers in 2001, before becoming CEO of Bear Stearns & Co. about four years later. He went on to work for JPMorgan as head of trading in the Americas before joining Wells Fargo, and now looks set to make a splash in crypto.

“[Eliades] has built world-class electronic trading businesses for decades and understands the role that crypto will play in shaping the future of global financial systems, Floating Point CEO John Peurifoy said in a statement.

Joining Floating Point was a particularly easy transition, he added, as Eliades has consulted for the company since 2018. The firm was founded that year and is backed by firms including Coinbase’s venture arm, Naval Ravikant and Tribe Capital.

Eliades said he is focused on helping Floating Point earn its customers’ trust and establish itself as “critical subject matter experts who help bridge the gap between crypto-natives and TradFi firms.”

He highlighted the company’s global execution desk which can handle flexible order instructions and execute on the client’s behalf. While common in TradFi with stock and options markets, Eliades said, such capabilities are still quite elusive in crypto.

“We see it as our first point of contact to bring asset managers into the space and it’s the service they all look for first before they get more complicated with operations,” said the new head of distribution.

The hiring of Eliades comes after the company revealed the launch of FlowVault in June. The service offers a console and API-based management of assets across exchanges via a single account.

“It gives us a really exciting springboard to branch out to give them the same smooth secure access to DeFi and other critical partnerships with trading solutions and OTC liquidity aggregators,” the executive added.

“[This allows] clients to not only view and manage their assets, but also trade, bet, store and leverage the many options that open up our crypto world.”

Get today’s best crypto news and insights delivered to your inbox every night. Subscribe to Blockworks’ free newsletter now.