Cesare Fracassi is an associate professor of finance in the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin, where he leads the Blockchain Initiative and the Fintech Research Lab. His primary research interest is in the area of corporate finance and financial technology. Recently, Fracassi was a member of the State of Texas Work Group on Blockchain Matters, and he was on academic leave as the chief economist of the Coinbase Institute.

His research includes work on cryptocurrencies, corporate governance, executive compensation, credit rating agencies, small business financing, and the effects of social networks and cultural preferences on financial policies. His articles have been published in the top finance journals, such as the Journal of Finance, the Journal of Financial Economics, Management Science, and the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis.

Before earning his Ph.D., he worked as a strategic management consultant at Booz Allen and Roland Berger in Italy, and as summer intern at the United Nations in New York. Fracassi holds bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering from the Politecnico di Milano in Italy and an MBA and Ph.D. in finance from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.