A former employee of Credit Suisse Group AG, Brian Wirtz, has left his investment banking job on Wall Street to pursue a venture in ICO startups.
As reported by Bloomberg, Wirtz exited the Swiss bank after nearly five years of employment, hoping to now promote the issuing of security tokens in particular during his new advertising pursuit.
Exiting Wall Street
Wirtz’s LinkedIn profile described his role at Credit Suisse as an “investment banker focused on helping crypto core teams achieve their strategic missions”. He previously worked as the head of blockchain advisory at the bank, describing his role here as “director [of] blockchain, crypto assets [and] investment banking”.
In a video accessible on the Credit Suisse website, Wirtz discusses his working history in relation to the cryptocurrency industry. After becoming engaged with Bitcoin in 2012, he took his newfound interest with him when he began work at Credit Suisse in 2013. Credit Suisse is currently investing in blockchain technology, as is JPMorgan Chase.
During his time at Credit Suisse, Wirtz spent six months pursuing a Bitcoin mining company on behalf of the bank, but his endeavor never came to fruition. He spent significant time advising companies on how best they could invest in blockchain technology.
Credit Suisse has a history of indirectly promoting the cryptocurrency market, previously hosting cryptocurrency conferences for institutional investors in the US. The conferences tend to get a lot of media traction, influencing the industry in a positive direction.
Wirtz is now allegedly looking to begin a project advertising security token ICOs, which should build confidence with ICO issuers currently operating in a tenuous regulatory climate. He is experienced in dealing with regulated securities, lending arguably much-needed compliance know-how to the industry.
It is reported that Wirtz left Credit Suisse because he was unable to accomplish his cryptocurrency goals while operating under a major investment bank. Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam has never openly come out in favor of cryptocurrencies.
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