Christopher Perkins

Perkins earned a bachelor’s degree from the U.S. Naval Academy and a master’s degree in National Security Studies from Georgetown University.⁠[1]

He served nine years in the U.S. Marine Corps, reaching the rank of Captain, and is an Iraq War veteran.⁠[1][2]

Before Citi, Perkins was U.S. Head of Derivatives Intermediation at Lehman Brothers.⁠[1]

He spent 13 years at Citi, where he led its futures, clearing and foreign-exchange prime brokerage businesses, rising to global co-head of that group, and founded its OTC clearing business.⁠[3][1]

In 2021 Perkins joined the crypto investment firm CoinFund as president; he later served as its managing partner and president, sat on its investment committee and focused on companies bridging decentralized and traditional finance.⁠[3][1]

On January 12, 2023, Commodity Futures Trading Commission Commissioner Caroline D. PhamCaroline D. PhamCaroline D. Pham is an American lawyer and financial-regulation and digital-asset executive who is chief executive officer of MoonPay Institutional and chief legal officer and chief administrative officer of MoonPay. She previously led regulatory and market-structure work at Citigroup, served as a commissioner of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission from 2022 to 2025 and as its acting chairman in 2025, and advanced policies on digital assets and tokenized collateral.Open the full entry announced the members of the Global Markets Advisory Committee (GMAC); Perkins was named as President of CoinFund.⁠[4]

CoinFund, Stellar and Uniswap were the first crypto-native firms on the committee. Perkins called at the time for “transparent, predictable, and principles-based regulations” that distinguish centralized from decentralized finance.⁠[5]

He also serves on the GMAC’s Digital Asset Markets Subcommittee and has testified before the U.S. Congress on crypto market structure.⁠[1][2]

On April 27, 2023, CoinDeskCoinDeskCoinDesk is a cryptocurrency media, events, index, and data company founded in 2013 and headquartered in New York. Its businesses include the CoinDesk news website, the annual crypto industry conference Consensus, and the CoinDesk Indices index business. In November 2023, the digital asset exchange Bullish acquired CoinDesk from Digital Currency Group, and CoinDesk has since operated as an independent subsidiary of Bullish.Open the full entry Indices and CoinFund announced CESR (Composite Ether Staking Rate), a floating-rate benchmark based on daily transaction fees and staking rewards on EthereumEthereumEthereum is an open, general-purpose smart contract blockchain that launched in 2015, and its native asset is ether (ETH). The project was proposed by Vitalik Buterin and advanced jointly by eight co-founders; the network now uses proof of stake and centers on the EVM, the account model, a rollup scaling roadmap, and the open EIP process.Open the full entry’s proof-of-stake network, calculated and published daily by CoinDesk Indices.⁠[6]

Perkins is a co-inventor of CESR. He said at the launch: “We are excited to launch what we see as a defining institutional reference rate for the crypto asset class.” He also founded Quatrefoil Data Services.⁠[6][1]

In January 2026 CoinFund’s liquid crypto strategies were spun out into an independent firm, 250 Digital, led by Perkins and Seth Ginns, formerly CoinFund’s head of liquid investments; Perkins became its chief executive.⁠[7][3][1]

On April 1, 2026, Franklin Templeton agreed to acquire 250 Digital, including its investment team and all liquid crypto strategies previously run by CoinFund, and to form a Franklin Crypto division led by Perkins. Terms were not disclosed; part of the consideration was to be paid in BENJI tokens representing shares of the firm’s on-chain money market fund, and closing was expected in the second quarter of 2026.⁠[7][3]

Perkins said in a statement: “Crypto’s institutional moment has arrived.” In a LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry post he wrote that the perceived reputational risk of institutional involvement in crypto had reversed and that the real risk now lay in not having a digital asset strategy.⁠[8][9]

In June 2026 Franklin Templeton completed its acquisition of 250 Digital and formally established Franklin Crypto, its active digital asset management division. Perkins became Head of Franklin Crypto, with Seth Ginns as chief investment officer; the division reports to Sandy Kaul, Franklin Templeton’s Head of Innovation.⁠[10]

Perkins co-founded Veterans on Wall Street (VOWS) and Veterans in Digital Assets (VIDA). He is a member of the Economic Club of New York, an advisory board member at Academy Securities and co-chair of the Blockchain Association’s National Security Committee.⁠[1][2]

X: Public account: https://x.com/perkinscr97 (opens in a new window).⁠[2]

LinkedIn: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-perkins-092569a/ (opens in a new window).⁠[2]