- Chris Tyrer has joined institutional crypto exchange Bullish.
- The exchange’s David Bonnano has also moved to a new role within the firm.
Fidelity’s former institutional crypto chief Chris Tyrer has joined Bullish as head of strategy, as the Peter Thiel-backed crypto exchange announced key leadership changes.
“Bullish has made significant strides over the past few years, and I am excited to join them for the next stage of their evolution,” Tyrer said in a statement.
He will be focused on leading its strategic initiatives, Bullish said.
When Tyrer left Fidelity’s digital arm in January 2023 after almost five years at the firm, his departure was big news.
The role is an influential one within a firm that has almost $13 trillion in assets under management, and has blazed a trail in institutional investing in crypto.
“The role will be quite a big piece of how Fidelity will move into web3, blockchain, and tokenisation,” Sam Wellalage, founder of recruitment firm WorkinCrypto Global, told DL News at the time.
Since Tyrer left, Fidelity Digital Assets vice president Manuel Nordeste has taken over some of his duties.
Various roles at Fidelity
Tyrer joined Fidelity Digital Asset Management in 2019, the year after it launched, as head of Europe.
He went on to spend time in various roles in the unit, including as president, and as head of institutional trading.
Before Fidelity, Tyrer spent 13 years as head of commodities and digital assets trading at Barclays bank.
Thiel backing
Unlike exchanges like Coinbase that are primarily for retail investors, Bullish focuses on institutional trading.
It is the 80th largest crypto exchange by trading volume, according to CoinMarketCap, though it says it ranks in the top five exchanges by spot volume for Bitcoin and Ether.
Bullish was founded in 2021 as a subsidiary of Block.one — a blockchain company backed by PayPal co-founder and billionaire Thiel.
At the height of the initial coin offering craze in 2018, Block.one raised a record $4 billion in an ICO.
However, the following year, it paid $24 million to settle claims by the US Securities and Exchange Commission that its token launch violated securities laws.
Bullish, on the other hand, hastens to say that it is fully compliant with regulation, and is licensed in Gibraltar.
It is led by CEO Tom Farley, a former president of the New York Stock Exchange.
Recently, it bought crypto publication CoinDesk for almost $75 million from the Digital Currency Group.
Bullish also announced on Tuesday that Bullish’s current chief strategy officer, David Bonnano, will step into the new role of chief financial officer, effective immediately.
Reach out to the author at joanna@dlnews.com.
