Winklevoss’ Gemini Exchange Recruits NYSE Chief Information Officer

Cryptocurrency exchange Gemini Trust Company, LLC (Gemini) has announced that former Chief Information Officer of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) Robert Cornish has joined the company, according to a press release published July 6. Cornish will join Gemini, which was founded by the Winklevoss brothers, as its first-ever Chief Technology Officer.

Cornish has previously held various senior positions at the International Securities Exchange, and was named by Institutional Investor as a “Trading Technology Top 40” Financial Services executive. At Gemini, Cornish will be responsible for leading technology initiatives and monitoring the deployment of Nasdaq’s SMARTS Market Surveillance technology, which will let Gemini control all of its order books and Gemini Auctions.

Tyler Winklevoss, Chief Executive Officer of Gemini, said in the statement that Cornish will “ensure that Gemini continues to deliver the best platform experience to our customers as possible and set the standards of excellence for the cryptocurrency industry as a whole.”

With this move, Cornish jumped on the wave of Wall Street executives migrating to blockchain and crypto projects. This year, former Goldman Sachs Executive Director Priyanka Lilaramani joined HOLD, a Maltese crypto startup, as a new CEO. Head of Central Europe at Fujitsu Dr. Rolf Werner joined IOTA Foundation. Last year, Crypto exchange Coinbase appointed former PayPal and Facebook executive David Marcus to its board of directors.

In April, Gemini announced it would begin offering crypto block trading outside of their regular order books. Investors interested in trading on the Gemini Block Trading marketplace are reportedly able to purchase and sell large amounts of digital currencies. In December last year, Gemini partnered with the Chicago Board Options Exchange to launch Bitcoin futures, which let them bring the traditional market instruments into the crypto space.