Ex-Credit Suisse manager turns to Bitcoin

[Coinbuddy]

A UK-based Bitcoin exchange has tapped the former global head of commodities at Credit Suisse to lead its attempt to promote professional trading of the virtual currency.
Adam Knight, who has been an angel investor in London since leaving Credit Suisse in 2011, has become executive chairman of Coinfloor and taken a stake in the company in a fresh fundraising round.
“Having spent my career trading commodity markets, I understand the exchange, clearing house and storage models well and wanted to find a team with the right skills and approach to build a robust global Bitcoin financial services business,” said Mr Knight.
“Bitcoin has survived some pretty significant shocks and proven to be far more robust than I had initially expected.”
A number of entrepreneurs are trying to build a second generation of virtual currency trading platforms, following the bankruptcy in March of the earliest and once largest exchange, Mt Gox.
That collapse, and the apparent loss of millions of dollars worth of the virtual currency, shook confidence among Bitcoin users and highlighted the experimental nature of the technology. Bitcoin was created five years ago by an anonymous computer scientist as an alternative to government-controlled currencies.
Coinfloor has said its platform is aimed at professional traders, including high-frequency traders, and aims to overcome institutional scepticism about the safety of Bitcoin exchanges by making public the details of its Bitcoin holdings.
“Adam’s expertise of regulatory compliance, risk and governance procedures will be invaluable,” said Mark Lamb, Coinfloor’s founder.
Mr Lamb declined to give details of the size of its new fundraising, but said Mr Knight was joined in the round by the company’s existing backers, Passion Capital and Taavet Hinrikus. Passion Capital is an angel investment firm led by Stefan Glaenzer, former chairman of online radio pioneer Last.fm and a founder of auction site Ricardo.de, and Mr Hinrikus was an early employee at Skype.
Coinfloor began registering customers last October and, following technical delays, began trading this year.

Source ''http://ft.com/cms/s/0/66f0ab6a-07aa-11e4-8e62-00144feab7de.html"

[1714814379]

1714814379

[Sindelar1938]

To be honest this chap sounds like a bit of a douchebag bandwagon jumper
Hope my impression is wrong!

[jbreher]

To be honest this chap sounds like a bit of a douchebag bandwagon jumper
Hope my impression is wrong!

Hmm. Well, he is jumping in bed with Nefario. Birds of a feather, maybe?

“Bitcoin has survived some pretty significant shocks and proven to be far more robust than I had initially expected.”
A number of entrepreneurs are trying to build a second generation of virtual currency trading platforms, following the bankruptcy in March of the earliest and once largest exchange, Mt Gox.

What of a second generation of bitcoin-denominated share platforms - following the implosion and capital destruction of millions of the once-largest such platform, GLBSE?

[ziggy.s]

Hmm. Well, he is jumping in bed with Nefario. Birds of a feather, maybe?

Seems like your information is seriously outdated.
http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/29gplx/coinfloor_integrates_uk_faster_payments/ciksp87

Nefario is not working with Coinfloor. It's understandable that you're shocked, your world has been turned upside-down! However, I'm sure you'll create some other atrocious story about this exchange to talk about.

To be honest this chap sounds like a bit of a douchebag bandwagon jumper
Hope my impression is wrong!

And you get this impression from one sentence? To me he actually seems allright and as far as I know, Coinfloor just brought in the most high profile banker to be involved with a Bitcoin business ever.
Here's an interview with him from his City times, even then he made a surprisingly good impression:
http://www.incisivemedia.com/energyrisk/Commodity_Risk/PDFs/Winter2008/cover_story.pdf

[jbreher]

Hmm. Well, he is jumping in bed with Nefario. Birds of a feather, maybe?

Seems like your information is seriously outdated.
http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/29gplx/coinfloor_integrates_uk_faster_payments/ciksp87

Nefario is not working with Coinfloor. It's understandable that you're shocked, your world has been turned upside-down! However, I'm sure you'll create some other atrocious story about this exchange to talk about.

Well, not shocked, but surprised. I would have thought that such a change would have been publicized more widely. Although I must admit that I had very little interest in following Coinfloor, knowing that at one time, Nefario (that scamming shyster) was a central figure in the business.

If this be true, I owe the remaining Coinfloor principals an apology.

Though I still think little of the founder's judgement, having bedded down with Nefario to begin with. Accordingly, even if I otherwise had cause to deal with Coinfloor, I would not.

No, I will not be 'creating'* any other story about Coinfloor. My sole issue was with Nefario being a principal.

* creating? really? _I_ did not create any situation to discuss - it was solely the decisions of the Coinfloor founders to bring in Nefario. All I did was point out what a bone-headed move it is to affiliate an exchange with a proven irresponsible steward of others' funds.

[jbreher]

If this be true, ...

In the link you provide, we come across the following unanswered question:

choicemarket 2 points 10 days ago
Mark, just a small follow up, I checked your AR01 filed with companies house on 7th May, which shows McCarthy as 23.19% shareholder. I assume from your statement that he is selling that stake?

Looks like Nefario may or may not still be a significant owner of the company. Care to reply?

[ziggy.s]

Guess what happens when you ask Coinfloor a direct question using support@coinfloor.co.uk

Thank you for contacting Coinfloor. It is great to see that you are asking all the right questions and doing the necessary due diligence on us. This industry will only mature if bad actors are weeded out and right now that means that customers need to be savvy about who they deal with.

Q: What is your current relation with James McCarthy aka Nefario? What was his active involvement in the company and did you at any point find him endanger the business or privacy of your clients?

A:  Coinfloor's current relationship with James McCarthy is that he is not an employee, shareholder, or in any way involved in the company at this current stage. James was a co-founder of Coinfloor and was involved in the business for a while. If you check Coinfloor's last account filings, it will show him as a shareholder, because those filings are out date. His involvement in the business was on the technological side and he never needed access to private client data or anything that would endanger the business.


Q: Do the AML checks that you carry out upon sing up leave ANY mark on clients track record?

A: Coinfloor runs an Anti Money Laundering check on all of our users which leaves a Coinfloor Ltd. ML enquiry footprint on our client's credit file. The enquiry footprint does not have any impact on your credit score and will not impair your ability to raise credit. This check is done alongside automated checks for sanctions lists and PEP individuals in the EU and in the world and they are done to protect Coinfloor and its customers from being exposed to Money Laundering or criminal activity financing.

[Velkro]

not big news, everyone will turn bitcoin in future

[Fray]

To be honest this chap sounds like a bit of a douchebag bandwagon jumper
Hope my impression is wrong!

Congrats on having leet posts!

I don't think it is so much about his personality that is important here, but rather the fact that he has a lot of trading experience and experience as to how exchanges run.

[SunBin]

To be honest this chap sounds like a bit of a douchebag bandwagon jumper
Hope my impression is wrong!

Jumping in after the price is so high is risky also.

[Mieehayii]

little good news 

[Bogleg]

To be honest this chap sounds like a bit of a douchebag bandwagon jumper
Hope my impression is wrong!

Jumping in after the price is so high is risky also.

Looks like he made a mistake if he bought this week.

[blatchcorn]

To be honest this chap sounds like a bit of a douchebag bandwagon jumper
Hope my impression is wrong!

Yes all these people using the internet really grinds my gears too. Badwagon jumpers eh?

[ziggy.s]

To be honest this chap sounds like a bit of a douchebag bandwagon jumper
Hope my impression is wrong!

Jumping in after the price is so high is risky also.

 
Gentlemen, I think this man is fine with some risk He's driving the Lotus Evora GT4 race car today in Barcelona at 24Series. 
 
https://twitter.com/Adam8Knight/status/507910943666610176   
 
Doesn't seem so much like a douchebag to me Check out the hood!