The month of June was historic for the blockchain markets as El Salvador became the first country to officially classify Bitcoin as a legal currency. The price action hasn’t necessarily followed suit, as we’ve seen mainly consolidation after the correction at the end of May.
For Hex Trust, it was another month of expansion as we successfully closed an investment from a key strategic partner and won a Digital Asset Custody award which was a testament to the team’s hard work over the last 12 months.
Hex Trust announced successfully securing investment from Cyberport, Hong Kong’s largest FinTech hub and innovative digital community, which is wholly owned by the Hong Kong SAR Government.
“The investment from Cyberport is a great vote of confidence given their track record in backing and developing major unicorns within the industry. Blockchain-based assets are growing in importance with financial institutions mobilising themselves as blockchain establishes itself as the next financial markets’ infrastructure. Hex Trust will play a leading role in this space, enabling digital assets’ adoption for a broad range of regulated financial institutions.” — Alessio Quaglini, CEO & Co-founder of Hex Trust
“The National 14th Five-Year Plan indicates clear support for Hong Kong to enhance its status as an international asset management centre. With the advancement of FinTech and blockchain technology, digital assets will become one of the most important asset classes. As an outstanding digital asset management company, Hex Trust is well-positioned in a promising sector of Hong Kong’s world-class financial services industry. Through investing into Hex Trust, the Cyberport Macro Fund has helped attract co-investments from professional investors, thus supporting this high potential start-up to further accelerate its business development.” — Dr. George Lam, Chairman of Cyberport
Hex Trust received an award in ‘The Asset Triple A Sustainable Investing Awards for Institutional Investor, ETF, and Asset Servicing Providers’. Hex Trust won the ‘Highly Commended’ award in ‘Best Custody Specialist, Digital Assets’.
Other winners include:
Alessio Quaglini, CEO & Cofounder of Hex Trust: “It’s a great honour to receive this award and underpins the team’s hard work and commitment to building the industry’s leading bank-grade digital asset custody solution. To win an award alongside the world’s leading banks and financial institutions is a fantastic testament to our dedication to adhering with the strictest of compliance processes, ensuring client success, and continuous technological enhancements.”
As The Asset marks more than two decades of its industry coverage, this set of awards has now become the industry’s seal of excellence and performance. The coverage period for these awards is January 1 to December 31 2020 with geographical coverage across all Asia-Pacific markets, including Japan and Australia, as well as the Middle East. In addition to submissions and pitch meetings, The Asset board of editors also engaged with clients of the participants, securing valuable feedback in the form of client calls and our in-house Asset Servicing Survey.
Hex Trust has announced the appointment of Colin Brooks as Chairman of Hex Trust’s Advisory Board. Initially appointed to the Advisory Board in July 2020, Colin continues to bring over 30 years of unparalleled experience, knowledge and connections building institutional custody and securities businesses, including serving as HSBC’s Head of Custody and Clearing for seven years, heading up a global business that covered over 50 markets across six continents.
There was only one must-attend event in June and that was Bitcoin Miami. Our community manager, Amber Urquhart, was in attendance and here’s what she has to say about the experience.
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"Attending the Bitcoin Conference 2021 in Miami was an unreal experience. It was the biggest bitcoin conference EVER with more than 50,000 attendees, including Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, celebrities, and speakers the likes of Michael Saylor and Jack Dorsey.
It was amazing to see all the enthusiasm and new crypto adopters. We all made it out to Miami in celebration of the city opening up after over a year of COVID-19 lockdowns. The discussion stage was at capacity, so they set up multiple outdoor screening sites during the panels.
Michael Saylor was getting a lot of buzz for his bitcoin advocacy. In tandem, Major Saurez was expressing his hope of turning Miami into the Silicon Valley of Crypto (and I’ve got a sixth sense that it could be true!)
Representing Hex Trust I was able to discuss our wide range of solutions while meeting a variety of new projects and exploring potential partnerships. Many participants agreed that our solutions would add value to their projects at any stage of their growth.
I was excited to catch the sea of new DeFi projects mixed with NFT platforms and galleries. This movement is a clear sign that we are witnessing a fascinating, ever-expanding ecosystem.
The conference was bitcoin-related, but with the swarm of side events, discussions and yacht parties you could sense the industry is much, much bigger. The bitcoin OGs still had a large presence at the event, with multiple bitcoin whale events and DeFi founders with their own side events.
The four-block line-up for entry will expand even longer by next year, guaranteed.I want to give a huge thank you to all the new projects and teams that I met during the conference. I’m looking forward to onboarding them with Hex Trust. The future city of crypto is the town that never sleeps! Here’s to Miami and the expansion of bitcoin into this effervescent urban landscape."
Forkast News: Hong Kong’s Cyberport invests in digital asset custodian Hex Trust
Asset Servicing Times: Hex Trust gains Cyberport investment
The Asset: Hex Trust secures Cyberport Investment
Digital Assets Custody: Hex Trust Secures Investment from Cyberport, Hong Kong Government’s FinTech Hub
Crowdfund Insider: Hong Kong based Digital Asset Custody Provider Hex Trust Secures Investment from Fintech Cyberport
The Asset: Hex Trust names chairman of advisory board
Asset Servicing Times: Colin Brooks named Hex Trust advisory board chair
Global Custodian: Hex Trust appoints former Standard Chartered custody executive as new chairman of its advisory board
El Salvator became the first country to officially make Bitcoin a legal currency. Their president said its government had made history and also signalled that they will add Bitcoin to the balance sheet of its Central Bank, using Bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset.
Binance is facing regulatory uncertainties as the UK government’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) stated that Binance Markets Limited, the UK division of Binance, “is not permitted to undertake any regulated activity in the UK”. Even though Binance isn’t regulated, non-registered firms can still technically interact with customers in the UK. This seems to be part of a global trend to more clearly define the permitted scope of unlicensed crypto service providers.
Following the ‘China Crackdown’ on Bitcoin miners which caused the Bitcoin hashrate to fall significantly, the rate has started to stabilize, with many experts predicting the worst might be over. Nevertheless, the seven-day average hashrate is currently down around 50% compared to the peak rate reached in May.
Russia’s central bank is testing its Digital Ruble pilot and named 12 banks that will be involved in the testing of the nation’s future central bank digital currency (CBDC). The regulator expects the prototype of the CBDC in December and piloting it in 2022.
The New York digital asset management firm NYDIG will make crypto purchases available through 650 banks and credit unions in the US via a partnership with NCR, a provider of technology solutions to retailers and banks. Through banking apps, clients will be able to access crypto trading, with NYDIG providing custody for the digital assets. Estimates show this could bring crypto to 24 million customers across the 650 banks for which NCR provides services.
