New Sales Leadership at Digital Securities Platform
tZERO Group has brought on Mike Diedrichs as Senior Vice President and Head of Sales, putting him in charge of global sales operations. The move comes as the company looks to translate recent infrastructure improvements into actual revenue streams. Diedrichs joins immediately, bringing two decades of capital markets experience to the role.
His most recent position was chief revenue officer at Bosonic, where he developed institutional sales for the firm’s broker-dealer and alternative trading system focused on digital asset securities. Before that, he spent nearly two years as Chief Operating Officer and Head of Business Development at HyperTrader, where he managed to triple the addressable market and increase monthly revenue by 30%.
Revenue Push After Platform Development
CEO Alan Konevsky made it clear that the company’s current priority is converting operational progress into concrete business deals. The platform has been busy over recent months, restructuring its infrastructure and forming partnerships. One notable collaboration was with UK-based Archax in October to cross-list digital securities across US, UK and European markets.
“As we deliver on the reset strategy, and execute with speed, our core focus is to convert these results into revenue,” Konevsky commented. “That is key. Mike’s experience aligns perfectly with tZERO’s mission to deliver connected, compliant, and scalable tokenized rails to a network of partners worldwide.”
This hiring decision seems to reflect tZERO’s desire to capitalize on growing interest in tokenized securities. Institutional money has been flowing into on-chain versions of traditional assets recently. Tokenized money market funds alone reached $7.4 billion this year, representing an 80% increase as major players like BlackRock and JPMorgan introduced their own products.
Traditional Finance Roots
Diedrichs began his career in traditional finance, spending seven years at GFI Group where he helped build a natural gas desk that generated between $8 million and $11 million in annual brokerage revenue. His team received recognition as the top natural gas desk by Risk Magazine from 2004 to 2008.
Later, he managed a structured credit desk at Tradition North America, leading a team of 10 that produced annual revenue between $8 million and $12 million. His move to TP ICAP saw him double the client base by bringing on more than 50 institutional clients.
In his new position at tZERO, Diedrichs will work alongside Evangelos Tzoulafis, Senior Vice President and Head of Execution, to advance partnerships related to the company’s three-part strategy focusing on tokenization, trading and connectivity. Alan Swimmer, Executive Vice President and Chief Strategic Relationships Officer, will oversee Diedrichs’s team.
The appointment comes shortly after tZERO launched crypto and stablecoin funding through a partnership with zerohash, allowing investors to deposit digital assets that convert to dollars in their brokerage accounts. The firm also operates one of only two US broker-dealers approved to custody tokenized shares directly on blockchain.
It’s interesting to see how traditional finance experience is becoming increasingly valuable in the digital asset space. Diedrichs’s background suggests tZERO is serious about bridging the gap between conventional financial markets and emerging digital securities platforms. The challenge now will be whether this experience translates effectively into the still-evolving world of tokenized assets.
