Crypto spring blooms in London
Citywealth CEO Karen Jones recaps recent crypto events in London and the take homes.
As the debate about which country will become the outright leader in crypto continues unabated, London became the crypto centre of the world on the 18-20 March, despite being considered behind the rest of the world after the USA, SEC ruling for an ETF spot BTC fund being approved (reluctantly) and Mica European law being much looked forward to.
This lag did not stop Blockworks, a crypto media operation, from switching their Digital Asset Summit 2024 to London with world renowned names flying in to speak; network and party. Michael Sonnenshein of Grayscale Investments, of successful SEC lawsuit fame which brought about the USA, ETF spot BTC market, who is represented by Edelman Smithfield for his communications, was at the event conducting meetings and also announcing a partnership to launch an index with FTSE Russell a subsidiary of London Stock Exchange Group to track the crypto market. Grayscale who has 90 staff, in essence, want to bring crypto into mainstream thinking. The product called ‘Grayscale Crypto Sectors’, plans to mimic GICS (the Global Industry Classification Standard) to show investors how to think about crypto in terms of, for example, utility coins. So, providing some classification for financial organisations. The consensus was from multiple speakers that GICS enabled the trad’ financial industry to become a global behemoth and so this style of replication should be the way forward to spearhead new products and services. Grayscale continue to innovate and lead in thinking so watch this space.
https://www.grayscale.com/crypto-products/grayscale-crypto-sectors
With a bunch of journalists in the media briefing that included mainstream titles with less knowledge of crypto, the Grayscale content is designed to start from the beginning to give industry history background, context and a look at the investor opportunity. The interesting thing on sample indices that were shown were coins like ZCash which as a privacy coin has come into some controversy with global governments who want to prevent things like terrorist financing and crime. However, the idea is to track the large majority of crypto coins to assess market value and returns. His top tip for crypto was AI coins.
Daniel Masters, Executive Chairman, Coinshares with approx. $7.3bn AUM and who was a commodity trader in a former life, is considered one of the OG’s in the industry, spoke on centre stage talking about the upcoming Mica regulation and said “the second biggest bank in Hungary is waiting to get involved.” Suggesting another jump for the crypto sector, deeper into the traditional finance sector. In my view and from anecdotal evidence, in the wealth management industry which includes offshore trustees where progress is non existent or slow there is a feeling that with requirements to grow AUA or AUM, that crypto is a glaring opportunity to develop new segments like custody and staking for UHNW customers. It is just waiting for the regulation. Chainlink was mentioned, which helps data stay tamper proof, and is one of the original names getting stronger recognition in the industry. Solana and ETH were also mentioned as having the scalability to grow. Stablecoins were in vogue with Coinshares planning to launch one but murmurings from many quarters saying the same. There was a discussion about valuing crypto when it has “no cashflow”. Earning yield on coins was seen as a good benchmark. Masters concluded that the past winter and bad news won’t disappear overnight so there still may be a wait before large inflows. However, the ETF spot BTC funds in the USA are clearly on a run with Blackrock (IBIT) reaching $10 billion in assets under management (AUM) on Mar 1, just seven weeks after its launch on Jan 11.
Was great to meet new friends Lawrence Trent at F5 Crypto who run crypto funds out of Berlin. Their fund can be subscribed to by semi-professional investors starting at €200,000 and for professional investors starting at €100,000. They offer access to a wider amount of crypto for the more knowledgeable investors. Also met Cole DeRousee at 1995 Digital Asset Research based out of Miami, he plans to get a regular crypto event underway with 19th April scheduled for a halving yacht party.
Trent and I joined Richard Munden, Partner, Carey Olsen Cayman over drinks and we also met Citywealth Crypto Club’s very own editorial board member Steven Rees Davies of Carey Olsen, Bermuda at both. Citywealth also held their crypto club with Jonas Gantenbein, Head of Digital Assets of Bank Frick Liechtenstein as speaker who was also a visitor at DAS. Bank Frick:
Bank Frick is a traditional Bank active in the crypto space since 2016, with a comprehensive suite of classical banking and digital asset services for crypto natives and non-crypto native intermediaries. it was also at the forefront very early on with Custody, Trading, Tokenisation and Staking. With Bank Frick and the Digital Assets space they want to pioneer in technology with the comfort of a licenced and regulated bank (Liechtenstein). The hub of Switzerland, Zug and Liechtenstein is world class in the opinion of Citywealth editor.
Copper.co, who offer crypto custody, held the big party of the DAS event at The Mandrake hotel which was well attended and included many sore heads the next day.
The 26th and 27th also saw crypto conference Big Picture Insight carry on with speakers covering litigation with Charlotte Hill (夏 洛特) Penningtons Manches Cooper LLP and El Salvador’s adoption which caused a big sanctions debate at the event – El Salvador were facing pressure from the USA over corruption in 2022. The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said at the time, Salvadoran Labor Minister Rolando Castro engaged in “misappropriated public funds for his personal benefit,” and used his position to influence unions. Speaker Tristan Thoma led the talk, who also led the El Salvador Bitcoin implementation with strategy and business consulting firm Impera Strategy.
The next Citywealth crypto club is 25th June
Review our club page here https://www.citywealthmag.com/crypto-club/
Past crypto club speakers https://www.citywealthmag.com/crypto-club-speakers/
Follow the Citywealth crypto page on https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/citywealth-crypto-club
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