Citigroup’s Greg Girasole and Alex Kriete, who were tapped by the bank last year to oversee a new digital-assets group inside its wealth management division, are departing.
The two will start their own venture, which they plan to share more details about in coming weeks, according to posts on LinkedIn.
"It was at Citi where my passion for digital assets began, culminating in the opportunity to lead the effort to bring this new asset class to their global wealth franchise,” Girasole said on LinkedIn. “I am proud of the foundation we set and will cheer their future success.”
Citigroup’s wealth management unit last year
A spokesman for Citigroup didn’t have immediate comment. Girasole and Kriete both declined to comment beyond their LinkedIn posts.
The two are among a raft of Citigroup executives to leave the bank for the world of digital assets.
Matt Zhang, who was co-head of Citigroup’s structured-products trading and solutions division, left in October to start a fund that trades digital assets and makes venture investments in crypto companies, while Christopher Perkins, the former co-head of Citigroup’s futures, clearing and foreign-exchange prime-brokerage businesses, was hired in August as a managing partner and president by CoinFund, a blockchain-focused investment firm. Sabrina Wilson, former co-head alongside Perkins, was named chief operating officer of Copper, which offers custody and prime-brokerage services for digital assets, the firm said this week.
“I believe digital assets will continue to grow in importance to global capital markets and the formation of new business models, and I could not be more excited to assist in the maturation of this market,” Kriete said on LinkedIn.
