Coinbase Has Acquired One River Digital Asset Management
Tl;dr: Coinbase has acquired One River Digital Asset Management (ORDAM), a premier institutional digital asset manager and SEC-registered investment adviser. ORDAM will transition to become Coinbase Asset Management (CBAM), and will operate as an independent business and wholly-owned subsidiary of Coinbase. The acquisition aligns with our long-term strategy to unlock further opportunities for institutions to participate in the cryptoeconomy.
With over $130 billion of quarterly institutional trading volume and over $50 billion of institutional assets on platform, Coinbase operates at the center of the institutional digital asset market. Our products are purpose-built to provide secure access to digital assets and Web3. Premier global institutions including asset managers, corporations, financial institutions, and other market participants entrust Coinbase as their platform of choice in the cryptoeconomy. As of Q4 2022, roughly 25% of the 100 largest hedge funds in the world by reported assets under management have chosen to onboard with Coinbase.
In furthering our goal of bridging the gap between institutions and the cryptoeconomy, we’re excited to announce that Coinbase has acquired One River Digital Asset Management, a subsidiary of One River Asset Management. An SEC-registered investment adviser, ORDAM will form the foundation of Coinbase Asset Management and offer investment advisory services to a range of new and existing institutional clients.
ORDAM is a leading digital asset manager focused on providing institutional clients exposure to digital assets via robust investment products. Coinbase and ORDAM have a history of close partnership. ORDAM leverages Coinbase Prime to deliver differentiated investment solutions to sophisticated institutions and we’re partnering to build innovative digital asset management infrastructure such as ONE Digital SMA, a suite of digital investment strategies and indexes in an easy-to-use separately managed account (SMA) platform powered by Coinbase Prime and Coinbase Custody, a New York DFS qualified custodian. Coinbase Ventures was also an early investor in ORDAM.
Coinbase and ORDAM share an ethos grounded in prudent risk management, a trait which has enabled both firms to successfully navigate the recent market turmoil. Culturally, our two organizations are strongly aligned on pursuing the opportunity in digital assets with an uncompromising priority on safety and soundness. With this acquisition, we are excited to welcome ORDAM’s best-in-class team to Coinbase and to partner more deeply to expand institutional access to digital assets.
Eric Peters will continue to serve as the CEO/CIO of ORDAM (now CBAM) as well as the CEO/CIO of One River Asset Management, an unaffiliated and independent business. Eric has over 30 years of experience in the asset management industry and founded One River Asset Management in 2013. ORDAM will continue to operate as an independent entity under Coinbase, segregated from our trading and exchange businesses, with minimal disruption to current business activities and standard controls implemented among well-regulated and diversified financial institutions.
We welcome top talent at Coinbase, and the One River Digital Asset Management team represents the best expertise in their field. We look forward to working with them in building our asset management business and providing industry-leading products and services to the institutions we support.
About Brett Tejpaul and Greg Tusar
Brett Tejpaul serves as Head of Coinbase Institutional, where he is in charge of expanding Coinbase’s institutional client base, introducing new features and services that institutional investors expect, and continuing to educate the institutional community about crypto. Prior to Coinbase, Brett served as the Global Head of Sales at Barclays and held leadership roles at JP Morgan. Brett received his Bachelor of Science degree from Boston College.
Greg Tusar serves as VP, Institutional Product for Coinbase, leading the firm’s efforts in areas like Prime Brokerage and Custody, Financing, and Coinbase Exchange. Greg joined Coinbase when the company acquired Tagomi Systems, where he was co-founder and CTO. Before Tagomi, Greg was Head of Global Execution Services and Platforms at KCG Holdings, and spent 13 years at Goldman Sachs, most recently as a Partner and global head of the firm’s equities electronic trading business.
