Barry Silbert is the Founder and CEO of SecondMarket, a platform that enables private companies and investment funds to more efficiently raise capital and provide liquidity to their stakeholders by simplifying complex transaction workflows, streamlining investor onboarding and verifying that investors are accredited.
SecondMarket has received numerous accolades in recent years including being named by the World Economic Forum as a Technology Pioneer and has received honors from Forbes, Fast Company, Deloitte and other organizations. Barry has received several individual honors including being named Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young and Crains, and being selected to Fortunes prestigious 40 Under 40 list.
SecondMarket is backed by a premier group of investors, including FirstMark Capital, The Social+Capital Partnership, Li Ka-shing Foundation, Temasek Holdings, NEA and Silicon Valley Bank.
In addition to founding SecondMarket, Barry also created the Bitcoin Investment Trust, a private, open-ended trust that is invested exclusively in bitcoin and derives its value solely from the price of bitcoin. It enables investors to gain exposure to the price movement of bitcoin without the challenges of buying, storing, and safekeeping bit coins.
Barry is also one of the most prolific angel investors in the bitcoin space via his personal investment vehicle, the Bitcoin Opportunity Fund, with investments in over 20 bitcoin-related companies, including BitPay, Coinbase, Gyft, BitPremier, Coinsetter, itBit, Ripple Labs, Korbit and BitPagos.
