Morgan Stanley hired a crypto trading specialist from Credit Suisse

Morgan Stanley has hired an expert in cryptocurrencies from Credit Suisse.

Andrew Peel, Credit Suisse's self-described former 'trading subject matter expert for Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies' has joined Morgan Stanley as head of digital asset markets according to his LinkedIn profile.

Peel will be based in Zurich and London. He previously spent 12 years at Credit Suisse, and worked as a derivatives trader and on the Delta One desk for over nine of them. He says he's been advocating crypto markets since 2013 and was made a vice president for sales and trading innovation (including cryptocurrencies) at CS in 2016.

Peel's move comes as Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman has been less critical of cryptocurrencies than some of his counterparts (Jamie Dimon). At Davos in January, just as Dimon was voicing his regrets about calling Bitcoin a fraud, Gorman said Bitcoin was here to stay. In March, Morgan Stanley started hiring crypto talent for its equity research unit. And in May there were unconfirmed reports that Morgan Stanley was preparing to add crypto to its suite of trading products.

Credit Suisse held a major conference on cryptocurrencies in November 2017, where CEO Tidjane Thiam said bitcoin speculation is the, "very definition of a bubble." Peel's exit comes after Brian Wirtz, the founder of Credit Suisse's New York-based crypto asset and investment banking unit left in April 2018. Wirtz has since founded his own company called the Blockchain Advisory Group. He and Peel aren't the only CS crypto exits: in April, Nelson Minier, a CS trader, left for crypto exchange Kraken, and in May ex-Credit Suisse FX trader Petro Levchenko set up a crypto hedge fund.

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