A managing director at Goldman Sachs London office has reportedly left the brokerage after making millions on Dogecoin.
Aziz McMahon has been with the bank for 14 years, according to his LinkedIn profile, but a Goldman spokesperson confirmed to Fortune that he has departed. A report on eFinancialCareers says the move came after a huge payoff in the cryptocurrency that no one was meant to take seriously.
Goldman declined to offer any additional details on McMahon’s departure. The eFinancialCareers piece suggested he might be starting a hedge fund, but it did not provide any information backing that claim.
If McMahon did cash in enough Dogecoin to quit his high-level job, he likely did so before Elon Musk’s recent hosting stint on Saturday Night Live, which led to a 30% drop in Dogecoin prices. The crypto has recovered somewhat since then, but is still 32% below its highs of just three days ago.
The lure—and rapid rise—of cryptocurrencies have been beacons to people in other career fields for some time. Last year, Coinbase hired Paul Grewal, a prominent figure and U.S. Magistrate judge in Silicon Valley, as its chief legal officer. And in 2017, the company brought in Asiff Hirji, a former top executive at Hewlett Packard and TD Ameritrade.
Ten thousand new Dogecoins are programmed to be issued every minute for the rest of eternity, meaning the value was never meant to hold. But pushes from everyone from Elon Musk to Mark Cuban to Guy Fieri have kept it in the spotlight, and traders have decided to defy logic.
Companies are increasingly jumping on board as well. Earlier this week, the Oakland A’s began selling seats for Dogecoin. And Cuban last week said the Dallas Mavericks would complete 6,0000 Dogecoin transactions in April, adding that it’s a crypto that people actually use rather than just hold.
