The talent flight to crypto sees another senior executive join the industry with Ben Ingram, former PwC director of digital strategy, appointed as CEO for crypto exchange bitcoin.com.au.
This appointment follows a series of announcements about big hitters from the world of traditional finance or top tech companies joining the crypto world.
According to Business Insider Ingram will join the crypto exchange and advisory business in Australia and in addition to working on the bitcoin.com.au’s trading exchange functionality, he will develop some crypto-based financial products in areas such as superannuation.
“There’s not many tangible examples of crypto-based investment products yet,” Ingram said.
“SMSF’s have typically been the preserve of the wealthy. It’s a vehicle where you can manage your own investments, and you also carry the cost of that audit,” he said.
He believes the blockchain technology behind bitcoin and other digital currencies’ means the auditing of crypto is incredibly simple and given the auditability of bitcoin transactions, Ingram said millennial investors who owned crypto assets “may be more inclined to self-manage”.
More broadly, he said specific crypto-focused funds are starting to emerge which could form part of an investment portfolio, “perhaps as a hedge against poorly managed central bank currencies”.
Bitcoin.com.au currently only provides transaction services for the world’s two biggest cryptocurrencies, bitcoin and ethereum but Ingram said the company was likely to expand its exchange services to include other cryptocurrencies in the future.
