Bloomberg: Goldman’s former Head of Digital Asset Markets joins startup

Schmidt left Goldman late last year as the firm was getting close to offering investment vehicles for Bitcoin and other digital assets to clients. During Schmidt’s tenure, Goldman also invested in cryptocurrency prime broker BitGo Inc.

“Justin comes from a very traditional background, he understands the trade lifecycle and the requirements of our clients,” said Anton Katz, who prior to co-founding Talos was head of trading technology for AQR Capital Management. “We are trying to bridge the gap between institutional investors and digital assets.”

New York-based Talos is a technology provider to asset managers, custodians and lenders that need an easy way to connect to and compare prices on different exchanges, over-the-counter trading desks and other key players in the cryptocurrency ecosystem. The company, which launched its services 1-1/2 years ago, has dozens of clients and 18 full-time employees, Katz said.

Schmidt said he plans to help Talos offer new capabilities, such as letting users easily compare crypto lending and borrowing rates across different providers, as well as to expand into international markets, such as Asia-Pacific and Latin America.

“We do see quite a lot of demand for those regions for an institutional way of interacting with the market,” Katz said. “Expanding into those regions in a natural evolution.”