Crypto updates from our CEO
Citywealth CEO and crypto enthusiast Karen Jones summarises recent news and events arising out of the digital asset industry.
The three-year development story of Zodia custody
Chief risk Officer, Anoosh Arevshatian and Gerry Afentakis Head of European and MENA Sales at Zodia Custody spoke at the recent Citywealth crypto club. An institutional venture from Northern Trust and SC Ventures which is a business unit providing a platform for Standard Chartered to promote innovation and investment into disruptive financial technology. Read the full article here.
Citywealth Top 50 Crypto Professionals 2023 released
After a period of research with a survey on our website, Citywealth released its Top 50 crypto Professionals. The aim of the list is to present professionals who are fully versed in crypto and its universe. Citywealth has analysed the content received, met many of the individuals on the list in person and checked their social media output and communications.
We will release our next list in 2024 and have ongoing research to help us understand and provide reliable content to the sector. Apply to be on the list for 2024 here.
The Financial Services Commission (FSC) of Mauritius has launched its Fintech and Innovation sandbox
“The FSC is committed to foster a conducive regulatory and business environment that encourages fintech innovation, while ensuring an appropriate level of compliance and consumer protection. In particular, the FSC aims to improve the competitiveness of the Mauritius International Financial Centre through the diversification of its product offerings and by supporting industry-led initiatives to develop technology-powered and innovation-driven financial products and services.” Malcolm Moller at Appleby, a global law firm but also based locally, is helping field enquiries. Find out more by emailing Malcolm or on their website.
The Bank of England are requesting feedback on their proposed approach to regulating stablecoins
The proposed regulatory approach put forward by the FCA and the Bank looks to harness the potential benefits stablecoins could provide to UK consumers and retailers, by making payments faster and cheaper. The proposals to regulate stablecoins aim to protect consumers, prevent money laundering with a robust set of rules and to safeguard financial stability. The deadline for responses is 6 February 2024. Read more.
Project Guardian in Singapore – ongoing tokenisation announcements
Very exciting news coming out of Singapore with big institutional brands able to test tokenisation and defi with government controls and assistance. MAS say: “Project Guardian is a collaborative initiative with policymakers and the financial industry that seeks to test the feasibility of applications in asset tokenisation and DeFi while managing risks to financial stability and integrity.”
Current pilots include:
- UBS Asset Management has launched a pilot to explore the native issuance of Variable Capital Company (VCC) fund on digital asset networks. This aims to help to enhance fund distribution and facilitate improved secondary market trading of VCC fund shares. As part of this initiative, proof-of-concept technical tests have been successfully conducted with SBI Digital Markets.
- Schroders and Calastone are progressing their work on a tokenised investment vehicle pilot, which will securely capture and maintain records of an investment portfolio directly onto distributed ledger technology (DLT)/ blockchain. The pilot will apply the security attributes inherent in DLT to evolve traditional forms of book-keeping and demonstrate proof of ownership through tokens.
- J.P. Morgan and Apollo are collaborating to demonstrate how tokenisation and smart contracts could enable the investment and ongoing management of discretionary portfolios, including Alternative Assets, through normalised subscription/redemption processing, automated portfolio rebalancing and customisation at scale.
Email or view the MAS website for further information.
Upcoming Events
Crypto Collapse and The Globix Affair: Lessons to be learnt, and recent trends
Hosted by Penningtons Manches Cooper and taking place in London on 5 December
5.30pm – registration and refreshments
6.00pm – seminar
7.00pm – drinks and networking
Contact vicki.cozens@penningtonslaw.com
Citywealth Crypto Club
28th November in London
Speakers: Philipp Pieper and Timo Lehes from Swarm
Swarm provide compliant, permissioned decentralized financial infrastructure. Both institutions and retail investors can invest, stake and trade digitized traditional financial products alongside crypto assets in one unified environment. We are connecting TradFi with DeFi.
Philipp Pieper is a co-founder of Swarm as well as the Swarm Network, an open-source project and DAO. Philipp also co-founded Proximic (acquired by comScore), Loop Media and Bitadel Crypto Trading. Philipp has been engaged in decentralised technologies and crypto-asset trading since 2015. He is also a startup investor and mentor at Singularity University and StartX. He is a member of the AIMA blockchain committee and Digital Currency Trade Association (DCTA).
Timo Lehes is a co-founder of Swarm and a FinTech and blockchain investor. Selected investments and exits include Pex.com, a media rights management platform, Aurigin Inc, a private equity deals platform, and adtech company Admeta. Lehes also has experience as a fund manager and led the US arm of Beringer Finance as an M&A advisor under SEC license. He holds a Masters degree in computer science and data communication from Chalmers University of Technology.
Membership information herewith:
- Citywealth Crypto Club founding member – £4,995 + VAT
- One year membership for the Crypto Club events (4 events a year)
- 5 passes per event, a place on the Citywealth Crypto Editorial Board, and 5 crypto accreditation logos (on completion of our online survey by each individual).
Contact: Yipei Dong
Crypto professionals spotlight
Tom Grogan, CEO, MDRx, part of the Mischon de Reya Group
Tom has a deep understanding of a wide range of emerging technologies including artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and blockchain (and other DLTs), and has experience advising public and private sector clients on the design, development and delivery of their technology strategies and solutions.
- Advising a high-profile government client in the Middle East on the creation of a blockchain policy that will be applied to various sectors including education, trade, finance, and healthcare.
- Led the formation of a Blockchain Technology Steering Group for a high-profile government client in the Middle East, to inform the development of its regional blockchain adoption policies.
- Advising New Commonwealth Limited on securing seed funding in relation to its tokenised real estate offering.
- Advised HM Land Registry on the UK’s first end-to-end digital transfer of real estate, underpinned by blockchain technology.
- Designed an innovative proof-of-concept for a key government client, leveraging distributed ledger technology, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, and focussed on identity management.
https://www.mishcon.com/people/tom-grogan
The Astraea Group had an autumn party at restaurant & bar Louie London
The party attracted high profile people from the crypto industry. Astraea Group, a multi-disciplinary group based in London, was established by James Ramsden KC and Nina Stewart FCA. James is a leading barrister in the areas of Commercial Dispute Resolution, Civil Fraud, Fintech & Digital Resolution, Regulatory & Compliance and Public Law. Nina is a chartered accountant and chartered tax adviser with experience in both practice and industry across several sectors. James Ramsden KC has been involved with many high profile crypto cases with his team. https://www.astraea-group.com/insights-1/singapore-courts-first-written-judgment-on-nfts
Closing notes
Join the Citywealth Linkedin feed. We assess and monitor crypto news and look for verified content. The feed now gives a solid history of key industry initiatives and events for the past year.
We also invite your press releases – please send those to kjones@citywealthmag.com. We feature verified crypto natives and professionals but also key bits of industry news – particularly if we see trends building up across social media platforms. These will feature on the www.citywealthmag.com website and also on our Linkedin feed. The Citywealth website has 12,000 wealth management and private client intermediary subscribers and the Linkedin crypto feed 1200+.
Best,
Karen Jones, Citywealth
https://www.linkedin.com/in/wealthmanagementmediaandcrypto
About Citywealth
Citywealth is a 17-year-old media, publishing, and events company with HQ in London. It has 9 full time staff. Founded by Karen Jones, CEO, Citywealth who has a long history in the news industry including at News International. Karen recently won a gold Stevie award in New York for innovation in crypto. Citywealth has five parts to the business.
- 1. Media output – writing articles about the wealth management industry globally – we have a full-time journalist. We have 12,000 subscribers and members to our events and clubs.
- 2. Awards programmes for the wealth management industry.
- 3. Networking clubs to mentor next gen in wealth management and a crypto club dedicated to professionals to learn and do business with each other.
- 4. A user rating site called www.leaderslist.co.uk for verified individuals – references are required from lawyers and accountants to be featured on the site.
- 5. A day forum each year with leading keynote speakers including family offices. The next forum has Sir Graham Brady as keynote speaker.
Notes from Citywealth Editor Karen Jones
Citywealth CEO and Editor Karen Jones provides her summary of top-of-mind trends and concerns seen in the wealth management industry today. She highlights ESG wins and woes, UK and US election unrest, succession politics, and more.