Former Nasdaq digital assets head Ira Auerbach has joined Arbitrum developer Offchain Labs to lead Tandem, the Ethereum scaling project’s venture capital and partnership division.
Auerbach brings extensive experience from traditional finance and crypto, previously serving as Senior Vice President and Head of Digital Assets at Nasdaq.
Before that, he held leadership positions at Gemini, including Global Head of Gemini Prime. Auerbach’s earlier career also includes roles at Palantir Technologies, BGC Partners, and BNP Paribas.
The appointment reveals how traditional finance talent is shifting to build on crypto rails while leveraging their past experiences from Wall Street.
Auerbach will oversee Tandem operations as a partner studio and venture capital arm, providing selected projects with technical expertise, research support, financing, and go-to-market strategy assistance.
Projects under Tandem will work directly with Offchain Labs’ executive team and core developers, also known for developing Prysm, an Ethereum consensus client.
“We will hold extensive conversations with projects we feel passionate about,” Auerbach told Decrypt, adding that Tandem would offer its resources “on a case-by-case basis depending on the specific needs of the project.”
Having been involved in the industry since 2017, Auerbach said he feels fortunate to have seen the ecosystem “from many different sides.”
The Princeton-founded company has spent over six years on blockchain research and development, focusing on scaling solutions through products like Arbitrum Orbit, Stylus, and Arbitrum Nitro.
These efforts across the Arbitrum ecosytem are driven by varying needs, Auerbach noted. Their work through Tandem is aimed at identifying where they “can add the most value, and build the relationship from there,” he said, adding that they could support projects through “guidance on research, engineering, product roadmapping, strategic partnerships, or capital contribution.”
Roughly three years since its launch, Arbitrum and the protocols around it have maintained a lead among Ethereum Layer 2 solutions, capturing over a quarter of the sector with $2.8 billion in total value locked, ranking data from CoinGecko shows.
Wall Street talents going onchain
Roughly 56% of Fortune 500 executives say that their companies are engaged with blockchain projects, according to a 2024 industry report published by Coinbase.
In comparison, 48% of the executives surveyed believe that crypto has “the potential to increase access” to the financial system to create wealth.
But the shift is also happening the other way around.
Crypto projects are looking at traditional finance talents to expand their initiatives for institutional offerings, stablecoins, and ecosystem compliance.
Recent examples include Galaxy Digital naming Tony Paquette as its new chief financial officer. Paquette previously worked at Point72, a hedge fund, and Bank of America’s Corporate Investments Group and Treasury division.
Digital asset management firm BitGo also tapped Ben Reynolds in November last year. Reynolds was the former president of Silvergate Bank.
Reynolds’ former bank was involved in the U.S. banking crisis in 2023, affecting major crypto companies offering institutional services.
Edited by Sebastian Sinclair. Updated to add comments from Ira Auerbach.
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