Anthony Watson has leapfrogged within the C-level suite at digital currency company Bitreserve. Fortune reported Monday (June 22) that Watson, president and COO since moving from Nike nearly three months ago, is now the CEO of the company.
Bitreserve lets users shift bitcoin into different currencies (nine so far, with four precious metals as well, according to Fortune) via the cloud. At the moment, the financial publication notes, the firm has $2.1 million in its holdings, with 55 percent in bitcoin, 18 percent in actual U.S. dollars and the remainder in British pounds. Bitreserve says it has over 16,300 members using its platform and to date has enabled $16.5 million in transactions.
With Watson now president and CEO of Bitreserve, founder Halsey Minor remains chairman of the company. Fortune noted that Bitreserve also has two newly installed board members: Adrian Steckel, who previously helmed telecom companies in Mexico, and Jim Milby, a former colleague of Watson’s at Barclays and Citi.
In an interview with Fortune, Watson said the move to Bitreserve helps actualize his desire to aid the unbanked and underbanked. “I’ve already worked for major companies,” he noted during the interview. “When I met with the Bitreserve team, it spoke to me on a social and equitable level. And it’s very rare you find opportunities like that.”
Separately, an unnamed spokesperson told Fortune the company also will make an announcement in July that “changes their service and offerings.”
And in reference to the digital technology itself, Watson said in his interview, “The negative perception is there,” he says. “It would be foolish to say it’s not there. But I think it’s a young currency, and the platform is just being developed. The value of bitcoin isn’t the currency, but the technology. I can’t see many major governments around the world saying, ‘We’re going to move to bitcoin as currency,’ but I suspect that the world will embrace the uses of the blockchain.”
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