Lauren Abendschein
Lauren Abendschein
Lauren Abendschein is a sales and trading executive based out of San Francisco, California. She is currently a Institutional Sales Manger at Coinbase, a leading digital asset exchange company. She was previously a Director at Credit Suisse in their Prime Services department. [1]
Education
Lauren Abendschein graduated from Oberlin College with a Bachelor of Arts in Politics and a Bachelor of Music in French Horn Performance in 2008. [1]
In 2018, Abendschein graduated from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley with a Master of Business Administration. [1]
Career
Lauren Abendschein began her career as an Assistant Director at Oberlin College. At Oberlin, she was r esponsible for the development and implementation of an entrepreneurship program under the first stage of a 5 year, $1.1 million grant. Abendschein taught ENTR 100 - Introduction to Entrepreneurship in the fall semester 2009 and spring 2010. She was an Entrepreneurship Fellow at the school from June-November 2007. [1]
In 2010, Abendschein joined Credit Suisse as a Director in their Capital Introductions team based in Hong Kong. From 2012-2018 she worked as a Director in their Prime Services department based out of San Francisco, California. [1]
In August 2018, Abendschein joined Coinbase as an Institutional Sales Manager. Sources confirmed the hire to Business Insider while a spokesman for Coinbase declined to comment as did Abendschein. Lauren Abendschein confirmed the news by updating her LinkedIn profile with the new position. [1]
According to Business Insider, Abendschein will be working with others in Coinbase's institutional business, which has been building out its white-glove broker business aimed at getting large firms onto Coinbase's platform. Coinbase recently onboarded a $20 billion hedge fund onto its platform, according to Business Insider sources.
Offering so-called white-glove services to large institutions — from face-to-face meetings to block trades — is one way crypto-exchanges are trying to lure larger investors to the nascent market for digital currencies, market experts have told Business Insider.
Kiran Nagaraj, KPMG's leader of cryptocurrency services, said larger investors need to be supported on crypto-specific issues such as managing crypto forks — when a crypto splits into two — for them to enter the market in a serious way. Big investors, Nagaraj says, don't want to be concerned with the technicals.
"They're in the investment business," he said.
"They can't hold their own private key.
Maybe you'll find some that'll do it, but they are looking for market exposure.
They don't want to deal with the operations."
Volunteering
Lauren Abendschein volunteered as an Executive Board Member and the Vice President of the External Committee at GirlVentures from 2014-2016.
GirlVentures is a nonprofit that focuses on inspiring girls to lead through outdoor adventure, inner discovery, and collective action. [1]