Former Citi trio launch crypto investment management firm

A trio of former Citi executives have formed a new investment management firm dedicated to crypto named Motus Capital.

The company is the brainchild of Alex Kriete, Greg Girasole and Frank Cavallo — each of whom left Citi in the past few months after long stints at the bank. Most recently, Kriete and Girasole served as co-heads of the Citi Global Wealth digital assets group.

Details about the new operation are scant, but Kriete said in a LinkedIn post that it would aim to bring the trio’s “decades of combined experience advising and managing clients’ wealth” to the crypto sector.

Get Your Crypto Daily Brief

Delivered daily, straight to your inbox.

In a recent interview, prior to unveiling Motus Capital, Kriete told The Block that “financial institutions have a hard time keeping pace in this market.”

“We’re excited to build something that caters to these people,” he added.

While at Citi in 2017, Kriete and Girasole began writing an internal, crypto-focused newsletter — helping establish the pair as in-house experts at the bank.

Their departures in April are just the latest example of talent flowing from Citi out into the wider crypto sector. The Block chronicled the exodus in a recent piece, counting no fewer than 15 departures who have found new homes at firms including Copper, CoinFund, Paxos, Genesis, the Provenance Blockchain Foundation.