Apollo hires JP Morgan executive to lead digital assets strategy
Christine Moy played a pivotal role in building JP Morgan’s blockchain strategy
Apollo Global Management has hired a crypto-friendly former JP Morgan executive as its first head of digital assets strategy.
Christine Moy played a pivotal role in building JP Morgan’s blockchain strategy, becoming global head of blockchain & crypto as well as global head of metaverse. She left the American multinational investment bank after 18 years in February 2022 to “pursue a new opportunity”, according to a LinkedIn post.
Moy now works for one of the world’s biggest private equity investment firms, Apollo, which has approximately $498bn (£396bn) assets under management (AUM).
In addition to her digital role, Moy has become a partner in the private equity investment firm. She told Bloomberg that Apollo “is best positioned to build and invest in the businesses that will propel us into the next phase of the Web 3.0 economy”.
‘Looking beyond bitcoin’
John Zito, deputy chief investment officer of credit at Apollo, said: “We’re looking beyond bitcoin to real-world use cases like asset custody, securitisations and marketplaces. We’re going to back specific companies, specific founders, all those who have interesting digital asset ideas.”
Apollo wants to establish a range of investments, as Zito added: “We’re huge believers in the digital-asset ecosystem, its potential to transform the financial-services industry broadly.”
Ignoring crypto is a risk
Apollo CEO Marc Rowan previously declared crypto to be “nothing short of amazing” and warned that to ignore the sector was a risk.
To that end, the firm has invested in Anchorage Digital, a digital asset platform and infrastructure provider, and Motive Partners, an investment firm that focuses on technology-enabled companies that power the financial services industry.
It has also partnered with Figure Technologies, a financial technology company in both the home equity and blockchain space, to execute mortgage transactions using blockchain technology.
Apollo will become a client of the firms it invests in to help “de-risk the business plan”. Zito said: “The biggest thing about these start-ups is they need real use cases, and we’re showing them how to make that work for institutions.”
