Private Equity Giant Apollo Hires Leader for Crypto Investments Team

Apollo Global Management made a significant step toward large-scale investments in digital assets. CoinDesk reports that the private equity giant made a strategic hire related to planned investments of $50 million to $250 million at a time in blockchain and Web3 projects with high revenue potential. Apollo hired away a veteran with nearly 20 years at JPMorgan to lead its new digital assets strategy.

With more than $500 billion in assets under management, Apollo is a noteworthy private equity firm with the potential to sink much more than its initial investment if all goes well. Here’s a closer look at what’s going on at Apollo as it gears up to invest in cryptocurrency-related assets for the first time.

Apollo Hires JPMorgan Executive to Lead Digital Assets Strategy

In February 2022, a cryptocurrency executive from JPMorgan announced that she was leaving the bank after 18 years for an unspecified opportunity. According to a LinkedIn post from the executive Christine Moy, she “launched JPM as the first bank in the metaverse,” among other major accomplishments related mainly to cryptocurrency, blockchain, and digital assets projects. Her mystery opportunity was a position as the leader of digital assets strategy at Apollo Global Management.

Apollo hired Moy as a partner with the title head of digital assets. In an interview with Bloomberg, John Zito, Apollo’s deputy chief investment officer of credit, shared that Apollo will seek multiple opportunities to invest in blockchain ad Web3 projects. Bitcoin is an unlikely target, he said, as Apollo is focusing more on revenue-generating investment opportunities. Zito added that the firm will “write checks of $50 [million] to $250 million” for blockchain-related projects. This indicates that Apollo could ultimately invest billions under Moy’s leadership.

About Apollo Global Management and Christine Moy

Apollo is a large private equity investment firm that ended the first quarter of 2022 with $513 billion in assets under management. Apollo was founded in 1990 and employs more than 2,100 employees worldwide. It operates three primary investment strategies, which it refers to as yield, hybrid, and equity.

Moy is a graduate of Brown University. Past titles at JPMorgan include global head of metaverse and global head of link at Onyx by J.P. Morgan. Before her positions in the Onyx division, she worked as global head of blockchain & crypto.

The Bottom Line

The addition of a knowledgeable and experienced cryptocurrency and blockchain leader from one of the world’s largest banks signals that Apollo Global Management is serious about the future of blockchain. While it may not be interested in buying Bitcoin directly, Apollo’s deep pockets give it the power to influence the future of the cryptocurrency industry. Apollo could play kingmaker if it picks a specific company or blockchain project for investment, giving fledgling crypto projects new funding for growth.