NYSE Execs Leave Stock Market for Bitcoin Exchanges Gemini and Coinbase

The top technology executive of the New York Stock Exchange is heading to New York-based cryptocurrency exchange Gemini.

Robert Cornish will join Gemini as the company’s chief technology officer. He was first hired by the NYSE in 2016 as chief information officer, where he led the stock exchange’s Pillar project to speed up trading systems and implement critical technology.

Prior to the NYSE, Cornish became the chief information officer at the International Securities Exchange, the first all-electronic US options exchange, where he worked for over a decade. He left the ISE after it was acquired by Nasdaq Inc.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Cornish left the NYSE last week.

At Gemini, he’ll be responsible for guiding the platform’s transformation into a world-class exchange that can handle massive trading volumes and help bring Bitcoin and cryptocurrency into the mainstream. “As the crypto market matures, we feel it’s going to look and feel like existing, mature markets like equities, FX and derivatives,” said Gemini president Cameron Winklevoss, reports WSJ.

Founded by entrepreneurs Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, Gemini has a current 24-hour trading volume of roughly $33.9 million, at time of publishing, according to CoinMarketCap.

The exchange trades three USD pairs:  Bitcoin (BTC-USD), Ethereum (ETH-USD) and Zcash (ZEC-USD).

San Francisco-based Coinbase is involved in similar efforts to attract institutional investors.

The digital asset exchange has hired NYSE veteran Peter Elkins who was head of market surveillance at the Big Board. He will now lead the new Coinbase Trade Surveillance Program, designed to monitor trading activity and to spot signs of market manipulation.

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