A Goldman Sachs executive is set to become the next CEO of Grayscale Investments after its current chief executive, Michael Sonnenshein, stepped down, effective immediately, the crypto asset manager disclosed Monday in a filing.
Peter Mintzberg, the global head of strategy for asset and wealth management at Goldman, will join Grayscale on Aug. 15 as its CEO, the crypto firm said.
Edward McGee, Grayscale’s CFO, will serve as interim chief executive until Mintzberg comes aboard, the company said.
“Peter is an exceptional strategic leader with global expertise across the most prominent asset managers, which are critical ingredients as we position Grayscale for its next phase of growth,” Barry Silbert, CEO of Digital Currency Group, said in a press release Monday.
DCG is Grayscale’s parent company, and Silbert led Grayscale until handing it off to Sonnenshein in 2021.
DCG began a search for a new CEO at Grayscale late last year, people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal.
Grayscale Bitcoin Trust had been an early way for investors to bet on digital assets through their brokerage accounts without actually buying crypto. Assets peaked at roughly $44 billion in 2021.
Under Sonnenshein, Grayscale sued the Securities and Exchange Commission to force the regulator to allow the Bitcoin trust to be converted into an exchange-traded fund. The investment vehicle, however, has seen $17.6 billion in outflows since that conversion in January, as competitors have joined the marketplace offering lower management fees than Grayscale.
The CEO search was not related to the trust’s performance, The Wall Street Journal reported. Sonnenshein stepped down “to pursue other interests,” according to Grayscale’s press release.
“It has been an honor and a privilege to work alongside such smart, passionate people to grow Grayscale into an industry titan over the last decade,” Sonnenshein said in the release. “The crypto asset class is at an important inflection point and this is the right moment for a smooth transition.”
Mintzberg, meanwhile, will add his name to a growing list of departures from Goldman Sachs. The investment bank has seen roughly one high-flying executive leave each month this year.
Goldman’s treasurer, Philip Berlinski, is leaving to become co-chief operating officer at the hedge fund Millennium Management. Stephanie Cohen, once the head of Goldman’s Platform Solutions unit, left to become chief strategy officer at IT firm Cloudflare. Beth Hammack, once a contender to become CFO at Goldman, left the bank in February. And Jim Esposito, co-head of Goldman’s global banking and markets division, announced in January he was retiring.
Mintzberg hasn’t had the lengthy tenure of the other departing Goldman execs: He arrived from Apollo Global Management in 2021. But the impact of his leaving presumably will be tangible.
Mintzberg has specialized in strategy throughout his career, with stops at McKinsey, BlackRock and Oppenheimer, according to his LinkedIn profile.
“I’ve long admired Grayscale’s position as the leading crypto asset management firm, and I am honored to join the most talented and pioneering team in the business,” Mintzberg said in a press release. “This is an exciting time in Grayscale’s history as it continues to capitalize on the unprecedented momentum in the asset class.”
Sonnenshein joined Grayscale in 2014 as an account executive after stints at Bank of America, Barclays and JPMorgan Chase, according to his LinkedIn profile.
