BlackRock Staffers Depart to Start Blockchain Investment Fund

The steady drumbeat of departures from traditional finance to the blockchain industry continues.

On Wednesday, Financial News reported that three members of BlackRock's institutional clients team in London have jumped ship in order to launch their own fund, Eterna Capital.

Eterna aims to raise €20 million and will be led by Andrea Bonaceto, who founded HiredGrad in 2014 after earning a finance degree at Imperial College London.

The other three founding partners all come from BlackRock: Nassim Olive will serve as chief economist and COO, Asim Ahmad as head of portfolio management, and Mattia Mrvosevic as head of research.

That kind of thinking appears to be gaining traction on Wall Street and in the City of London, where people are leaving traditional finance to join or launch ventures focused on cryptocurrencies or blockchain technology.

April saw a Goldman Sachs executive leave to join the wallet and data provider Blockchain, as well as Lewis Ranieri - who pioneered the sale of mortgage-backed securities at Salomon Brothers - partner with the blockchain startup Symbiont.

Other notable ex-Wall Streeters focusing on blockchain technology include Blythe Masters, the former JPMorgan Chase exec who founded Digital Asset Holdings.

Unlike the veterans named above, Eterna Capital's founders were at relatively early stages in their careers in finance.

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