CrossTower hires Citadel and Deutsche Bank veteran to lead new capital markets unit

Digital assets trading business and exchange operator CrossTower is launching a new capital markets division focused on services for institutional investors.

Those services will include digital asset lending and trade financing, structured products and fund offerings, and best execution.

Greg Bunn, a former executive at Citadel and before that at Deutsche Bank, has joined CrossTower to oversee the new unit in the role of chief strategy officer.

“What an exciting time for the asset class, that was one attraction. I think another thing is it looks to me like a lot of the things that need to be solved in digital assets are things that traditional markets have grappled with and have solved, and which I’ve dealt with in the past,” he told The Block. “It appears to me that the industry is on this journey from inefficient to efficient, from disorganised to organised.”

CrossTower was founded in 2019 and caters both to retail and institutional investors. Asked how the firm differentiates itself from other exchanges, chief executive Kapil Rathi said: “Cost is just one factor, there are a couple of big factors. Liquidity is an important factor. So right out of the gate CrossTower has been competing with the top three exchanges in the US when it comes to tight spreads.”

The company currently employs 15 people and has 25 institutional customers, with another 20 being onboarded, Rathi said. In terms of volume, CrossTower is hitting roughly $100m on a monthly basis.