Crypto Finance Conference (St Moritz) and World Economic Forum (Davos) (January 2020)
Delighted to attend and support the CFC in St Moritz with FiCAS (www.ficas.com) a cryptovalley company introducing the world’ first actively managed exchange traded product (crypto investments) on the Swiss Exchange.
Equally glad to attend several blockchain- and crypto-related events around the WEF 2020 in Davos, including panel discussions on financial services innovation, promoted by World Innovation Economics, and on cryptofinance regulatory approaches, priorities and threats ahead – at the Crypto Valley Summit.
Honored industry-only representative at annual IOSCO/BIS conference (November 2019)
Honored to represent the Cryptovalley and its association (CVA) in a IOSCO / BIS close-door event featuring 120 regulators from 57 countries. The 2-day conference on securities trading issues and market infrastructure offered great formal and informal discussion opportunities as well as a panel on cryptocurrencies (shared with Nick Cook from FCA and Adrien Delcroix from EBC) that touched on a variety of cryptofinance and DLT issues including ICO / STO, Stablecoins, cryptoassets and DLT benefits, risks, economic function, cryptoregulation, debate on the adequate regulatory approach, the issue of CBDC issuance, market infrastructure including cryptoexchanges and their regulation, latest AML rules and their implementation, as well as overall prospect for cryptofinance.
Introducing the Crypto Valley Ecosystem 2.0 to the World Federation of Exchanges (June 2019)
Introducing the emerging "CryptoValley Ecosystem2.0" to the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) as well as CVA, SEBA Crypto AG and Xwiss AG, and discussing challenges to traditional exchanges, the economics and prospects of crypto assets and debating strategic response. With Matthias Obrecht (FINMA), Luca Schenk (Xwiss) and representatives from 28 exchanges / jurisdictions. The emerging Crypto Valley Ecosystem 2.0 is characterised by 1) an articulated and performant regulatory environment that provides legal certainty to blockchain, 2) a higher degree of economic integration of blockchain companies, and 3) an institutional-grade market infrastructure, including licensed crypto banks and exchanges.
Standalone, closed-door, discussion at the BIS (April 2019)
Excellent standalone, closed-door, discussion at the BIS, in an expert capacity, meeting a number of in-house senior managers and functional specialists, presenting and discussing i) the challenges for banking raised by Fintech, ii) the Swiss blockchain industry, iii) the CryptoValley and its Association (CVA) and policy initiatives, iv) the cryptoassets markets, the ICO ‘bell curve’ and lessons learned, the nature and prospects of STO, v) the blockchain / crypto regulation in Switzerland, elsewhere and the key prudential and conduct themes, vi) the opportunities and challenges of cryptofinance, and vii) why projects such as SEBA Crypto AG are crucial to achieve the infrastructure ‘level-up’ needed for the cryptomarkets and associated financial processes to reach maturity and sustainability.
Our position on the BCBS discussion paper on prudential crypto-assets standard (January 2020)
The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) issued a discussion paper on prudential crypto-assets standard on 12 December 2019 and solicited comments until 13 March 2020.
In our paper we explain why although the initiative is laudable, the preliminary direction is misguided in our view.
The text was first published by Bank SEBA on 16 January 2020 in the form of a research paper authored by METI Advisory in its capacity as external regulatory analyst.
Cryptonation (September 2019)
Honored to have contributed to the book "Cryptonation" and to have shared this privilege with 90 others distinguished shapers of Cryptonation Switzerland.