After seeing its Global Head of Predictions Travis McGhee depart earlier this year, digital assets trading platform operator Crypto.com has announced that it has hired Iskandar Vanblarcum as Managing Director of its Crypto.com Exchange.

As Managing Director, Iskandar Vanblarcum will be responsible for expanding Crypto.com Exchange’s client base and oversee new features and services for institutional partners, including spearheading the platform’s planned regulated Prediction Markets and Real-World Asset (RWA) offerings. His immediate focus is on launching an institutional-grade offering for event contracts, with future plans to open up regulated access to Exchange clients globally.

After more than 20 years in investment banking and financial market infrastructure, Iskandar Vanblarcum moved into the digital asset space in 2021 with OKX, where he served most recently as VP of Business Development, until leaving OKX late last year. He has navigated alignment with the EU’s Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) framework, co-ordinated with Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), supported licensing efforts in The Bahamas, and forged key custody partnerships.

Prior to entering the digital assets space at OKX, Iskandar Vanblarcum held senior roles at London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) and Barclays Investment Bank.

We’d note that Mr. Vanblarcum’s comes soon after another OKX alum, Maria Allott, joined Crypto.com to head Prediction Markets sales.

Kris Marszalek, Co-Founder and CEO of Crypto.com said,

“With his extensive experience scaling global exchanges into regional markets with a focus on trust and transparency, Iskandar is the perfect choice to lead our growing product offering and expand our client base as more institutions look to access on-chain assets. Our Exchange platform has been the cornerstone of our institutional and advanced trading strategy, and established financial institutions are increasingly relying on us for executing transactions, sourcing deep liquidity, and managing their market exposure.”

The Crypto.com Exchange has grown to become one of the world’s leading USD-supporting cryptocurrency exchanges by spot volume and is Kaiko’s leading Spot Exchange – a position held for the past three consecutive quarters. The platform was purpose-built as an institutional-grade platform for advanced traders, family offices, and traditional financial institutions.

“I moved into digital assets after two decades in financial markets because I believed the next era of finance would be rebuilt on-chain and the venues that got regulation right would define this shift. Prediction markets are where derivatives were in the 1980s – institutional capital knows they belong in the portfolio and they are looking for a regulated, secure platform to access these contracts,” said Iskandar Vanblarcum, Managing Director, Crypto.com Exchange. “The Crypto.com Exchange already has the infrastructure – my job is to build the institutional venue that the next decade of on-chain finance deserves and continue the company’s mission to bridge traditional finance and the digital asset ecosystem.”

Recently, the Crypto.com Exchange launched a major interface upgrade creating a more responsive environment to improve how traders analyse markets, execute trades, and manage funds across the platform. The Exchange was also among the first platforms to integrate BlackRock’s tokenized fund (BUIDL), allowing institutional clients to use the yield-bearing tokenized asset as collateral for margin trading.

About Crypto.com Exchange

The Crypto.com Exchange allows institutional and advanced traders to trade with confidence on one of the world’s fastest and most secure platforms. The Exchange is a truly comprehensive on-chain and multi-asset offering providing access to cryptocurrencies and RWAs such as equities, commodities, metals, energy and stock indices. Traders can utilise a full suite of financial instruments, including spot trading, margin trading*, derivatives*, RWA-perpetuals* and more. Empowered by deep global liquidity, the platform’s execution workflow offers both a real-time aggregated order book and a dedicated Over-the-Counter (OTC) offering, ensuring that all trading is conducted in a safe, seamless, and fully regulated environment. Additionally, Crypto.com Exchange offers Crypto-as-a-Service, an all-in-one crypto infrastructure solution to empower digital asset strategy for banks, brokers, exchanges, and fintech firms.