Bitcoin Suisse Taps Ex-UBS Banker as CEO

The Swiss crypto broker’s CEO is stepping down after four years. His replacement is an ex-UBS banker well-known for his technology expertise.

Arthur Vayloyan is stepping down as CEO of Bitcoin Suisse at the end of March, the Zug-based crypto firm said in a statement on Friday. He will be replaced by Dirk Klee, effective April 1. Vayloyan will remain one of five board members of the firm.

Like Vayloyan, Klee comes from traditional financial services: he was the operating chief of UBS’ flagship wealth unit for five years before in 2018 taking the top job at Barclays for wealth management and investments in the U.K.

Bitcoin Suisse didn’t provide a specific reason for the CEO change. The news comes one week after co-founder Niklas Nikolajsen relinquished the chair job to Luzius Meisser.

The nine-year-old firm is coming off a turbulent 2021: it was forced to retreat on a Swiss banking license, after being told by regulator Finma that it hadn’t done enough to root out money laundering. This led Bitcoin Suisse to strengthen its ranks several months later.

It remains wildly profitable: Niklajsen said Bitcoin Suisse is on its way to nearly doubling last year’s net profit of 24.1 million Swiss francs ($26.1 million), in a social media post last month.

Klee, a German native, has made a career of innovating traditional financial services: he ran a large part of Blackrock’s exchange-traded funds business in Europe before moving to UBS in 2013.

There, he was responsible for a $1 billion technology project to unify UBS’ disparate wealth platforms. Most recently, he oversaw the rollout of a digital tool for Barclays’ affluent U.K. clients.