Evernode, a treasury management firm that holds and manages XRP, has appointed a former Coinbase executive as chief investment officer, timed to its Nasdaq listing.

Coinpost, a blockchain media outlet, reported on Oct. 14 that Evernode said it hired Hugo Jeandesboz (휴고 장데스보즈), who served as co-chief investment officer at Coinbase Asset Management. The company began trading on Nasdaq under the ticker XRPN on Oct. 12.

The appointment is seen as making clear that Evernode has chosen a structure to actively manage XRP rather than a simple buy-and-hold treasury strategy. The company said a treasury organisation that holds assets needs custody and control, while an active management model like its own requires an investment strategy and risk management framework, as well as staff to take responsibility for both areas.

Jeandesboz reports directly to founder and CEO Ashish Birla (아시시 빌라). He will oversee asset allocation, liquidity management and active management of the company's XRP holdings. He will also serve as a senior point of contact for counterparties and custodians. He has more than 10 years of institutional trading and investment management experience in traditional finance and digital asset markets, and most recently led solution investment strategy at Coinbase Asset Management.

Evernode cited the growth potential of the XRP Ledger ecosystem as the background to the hire. Birla said expanding tokenised real-world assets and upgrades to the XRP Ledger are creating opportunities. He said changes are under way to bring lending and decentralised finance to XRP, and that the company needed talent that has priced risk on institutional investor desks in both traditional finance and digital assets.

Jeandesboz also emphasised the expanding role of the XRP Ledger. He said the financial system is being rebuilt on a "programmable foundation" and signalled his view that the XRP Ledger is becoming infrastructure where institutional capital operates. He said he would build a treasury operating framework suited to that opportunity.

The listing process has also recently been completed. Evernode completed its merger with special purpose acquisition company Almada Acquisition Corp II on Oct. 9, and shares of the combined company began trading on Nasdaq on Oct. 12. As of the merger closing, Evernode held about 473 million XRP and about $300 million in cash before deducting transaction costs.

Market reaction has been mixed. The stock has fallen more than 16 percent over the past five days. Evernode is pitching an active management strategy based on its large XRP holdings and cash, but how investors will assess that after the listing remains to be seen.

In this situation, the appointment can be seen as a step to make organisationally concrete Evernode's direction of treating XRP not as a passive holding but as an actively managed asset. Key points to watch are how it will allocate and manage its XRP holdings as a Nasdaq-listed company, and whether it can translate its custody, liquidity and risk management framework into market trust.