It all began with Joe
I had a trading/investing background and wanted to create something meaningful in the space. Everyone was quoting "Total Crypto Market Cap," yet there was no tradable asset. So I thought, "Let's build the S&P 500 of Crypto." Matz was the first person I called, but it was still just an idea. We had a developer, but the system didn't work until we met Preston. With Preston, the system began to take shape and have a purpose. Cris then joined the core team and we went to work.
Co-Founder
Joe Sticco is a lifelong trader and asset manager. He realized the financial landscape was changing rapidly and that financial applications could be accessed and transacted faster. In 2014, Sticco bought his first Bitcoin, sold it shortly after, and made a small profit. He forgot about it until the summer of 2016, when he began researching, accumulating, and holding various tokens.
Joe often gets asked how we got on Gemini. His response is always the same: "I was eating pizza in the West Village in 2019 when the Winklevoss twins ran past me. I chased them for six blocks and pitched them in the middle of the street. I lost half a slice of pizza that day, it was really hot out and I had to sprint to catch up to them. Thankfully, the light turned red. They were very polite and cordial. When they asked if I had a card, I said no, I was just eating pizza. They gave me someone on their team to email and that's how it started for two years."
Co-Founder
Born and raised in New York, Matz was captivated by cryptocurrency and decentralized technologies when he discovered them in 2013. Before co-founding Cryptex Finance, he worked as a strategic planner in the fashion and beauty industries. In his spare time, Matz collects NFTs and delves into the world of art.
Co-Founder
Van Loon tried various careers before discovering Ethereum in 2013. He was recruited by Google and became interested in Ethereum, leading him to form Prysmatic Labs with Raul Jordan. They received a $100,000 grant from the Ethereum Foundation, then met with other devs in Taipei to settle on a sharding/PoS design. Currently, he focuses on building client software for Ethereum's switch to PoS and other scaling efforts.