Ophelia Snyder

Ophelia Snyder is co-founder and president of 21Shares and Amun, having co-founded 21Shares alongside Hany Rashwan in 2018. The company launched in Switzerland and introduced one of the world's first ever physically backed crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs) in Europe that year. 21Shares became the first issuer to launch crypto ETPs across multiple jurisdictions and grew to manage over $11bn in assets across 55 listed products by September 30, 2025. FalconX, the institutional digital asset prime brokerage, announced in October 2025 it had agreed to buy the asset manager.

Snyder studied earth systems at Stanford University as an undergraduate and enrolled at NYU Stern to build the financial expertise she knew she lacked, earning an MBA in 2016. As an undergraduate, she studied Earth Systems at Stanford University, and her first real job was making films, mostly about the ocean, for documentaries. She grew up between New York and Rome.

She began her career working in venture capital and then investment banking which led her into crypto. She was an analyst at The Westly Group from January 2013 to June 2014, an investment banking associate in the Technology, Media, and Telecom group at UBS from 2016 to 2017, and an associate in the Technology Advisory Group at Evercore in 2017. Snyder is an EY Entrepreneurial Winning Woman EMEIA, Forbes 30 Under 30 alum, and was named on Bilanz's Top 100 Bankers of Switzerland list. At one point, Snyder and her cofounder navigated conversations with 27 regulators to bring their product to market.

21Shares co-founder and co-chair Ophelia Snyder departed in November 2025, seven years after first blazing a trail into crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs) in Europe. FalconX completed the acquisition of 21Shares in November last year, resulting in the largest exit by a female founder in crypto according to Snyder.

Career history

• Co-founder & President, 21Shares (November 2018–November 2025)
• Associate, Technology Advisory Group, Evercore (2017)
• Investment Banking Associate, Technology, Media, and Telecom group, UBS (2016–2017)
• Analyst, The Westly Group (January 2013–June 2014)

What Ophelia Snyder could bring to her role at 21Shares: With a proven track record of pioneering complex regulatory infrastructure for emerging financial sectors, Snyder demonstrated exceptional ability to translate regulatory complexity into viable products—navigating 27 regulators to launch crypto ETPs when the infrastructure barely existed. Her systems-thinking approach, grounded in Earth Systems theory but applied to finance, combined with her investment banking and venture capital experience, positioned her to bridge institutional finance and digital assets at scale. Her demonstrated leadership in scaling a company from concept to $11 billion in assets under management, while building a 150-person organization across three continents, showcases her capability to execute ambitious institutional financial products in highly regulated environments.