GSR Ramps Up DeFi Focus with Head of DeFi Hire and Growing Investment Arm

Further Expands Liquidity and Hiring Push to Support Increased Activity and Commitment to Existing DeFi Capabilities

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--GSR (the “Company”), a global leader in digital asset trading, has appointed Jake Dwyer to lead its rapidly growing Decentralized Finance (DeFi) business, now trading more than $1B daily on decentralized exchanges. He joins GSR after over four years as Senior Vice President at Two Sigma and GM of the Venn by Two Sigma investment platform.

Since Dwyer’s arrival in May, GSR has boosted its on-chain development and venture investment efforts in DeFi, including its market-making platform and decentralized technology infrastructure. As Head of DeFi, Dwyer will continue spearheading the strategic direction of GSR’s DeFi business line and further expand headcount to more than 20 by year’s end across product, engineering and business development. Additionally, the firm will grow its capabilities as a leading partner to builders of on-chain technology and apps and those seeking access to cryptocurrency markets.

“With the rapid pace of innovation in DeFi, this is a unique, exciting opportunity to support and further GSR’s goal of becoming the leading partner to those seeking access to DeFi markets,” said Dwyer. “Looking ahead, I am excited to extend our leadership position in the market and continue building out the list of DeFi protocols we already work with as a liquidity provider, investor and strategic partner.”

GSR has become a core provider of liquidity to DeFi projects and decentralized exchanges in the last 24 months, and expects to contribute more than $1B in total volume locked (TVL) to DeFi protocols over the next 12 months. The company has also steadily built up its altcoin options trading activity, making markets at scale surpassing that of other trading firms and exchanges, with over one million trades per day.

“Our leadership in DeFi is driven by our ability to stay ahead of the curve with top-notch trading infrastructure and strategic capital deployment,” said Cristian Gil, Co-Founder, GSR. “With increased investment and focus within DeFi, GSR can ensure continued execution of our extensive quantitative and VC capabilities, with the aim for our DeFi activities to equal our CeFi activities next year.”

GSR expects to invest more than $60M this year out of its venture arm, with about two-thirds of this allocated to DeFi. These projects are grounded in well-established relationships with top-tier partners including Beta Finance, dYdX, Hashflow, Tracer, Tempus and Visor, among others.

“The decentralized derivatives market has grown significantly in the last six months, and we are meeting this growing demand across our platform," said Vijay Chetty, Head of Business Development at dYdX. “Through its investment and participation in the dYdX market, GSR’s commitment to helping the dYdX ecosystem grow has been instrumental as we strive to become one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges in the near future.”

GSR offers programmatic execution services, liquidity provision, as well as custom-built options and structured products. GSR is also an investor in over 70 projects, forming lasting partnerships with companies across blockchain, cryptocurrency and DeFi communities. As of September, GSR was trading over $3 billion a day in total trading volumes.

About GSR

Founded in 2013, GSR is a global leader in digital asset trading specializing in providing liquidity, risk management and structured products to institutional participants in the digital asset ecosystem. Its team of veteran finance and technology executives from Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Two Sigma, Citadel and Blackstone, among others, has developed one of the world’s fastest and most robust trading platforms. For more information, visit gsr.io.