This month we had the pleasure of interviewing one of our clients Archax. The main focus within our April newsletter is blockchain and cryptocurrency and we thought it would be great to get some fresh and innovative views on this business area.
How would you best describe Archax in a few sentences?
Archax is launching an ecosystem that builds a credible bridge between traditional financial markets and the emerging crypto space, providing the regulated gateway to global digital capital markets growth that institutions have been waiting for.
Archax offers a credible bridge between the blockchain world and the existing investment space, but what sets you apart from your competitors?
Existing crypto and digital markets have typically been unregulated and focused on retail investors. Those that are regulated are often based in smaller jurisdictions too. Archax is set apart from others as it is run by an experienced team from traditional markets that understands the controls and processes that institutions need and that is lacking in the digital space currently. Archax is also the first and only digital securities exchange, broker and custodian to be regulated by the UK FCA.
Can you tell us more about your range of liquid digital structured products?
Archax is in the final stages of obtaining its Alternative Investment Fund Management (AIFM) license. Once that is in place, we will be making investments in interesting assets such as macro hedge funds, crypto funds, index constituent baskets, etc. and then tokenising those investments and listing the tokens on our exchange, so creating a bespoke range of interesting digital structured products.
What do you see the latest advancements in blockchain being?
The DeFi space is really interesting and how blockchain is being used there, particularly around lending and staking. Most activities there are currently operating without any regulation in place. Archax sees regulated DeFi as a potential opportunity that we are currently exploring.
WeWork is set to accept membership fees in cryptocurrency, to what extent do you see crypto taking over money as a tender for transactions?
I think it is just another mechanism and another currency that can be used for transactions and payments. A challenge at the moment is that as soon as you need to convert these payments in/out of fiat, then the volatility of cryptocurrencies becomes something you need to worry about.
What are the key advantages of working with a firm such as Zuri Technologies?
From Archax’s perspective, the key benefits of working with Zuri Technologies have been its niche domain expertise in its core technology offerings, as well as bringing additional people/skills that we simply don’t have in-house. Also being able to outsource our 24/7 network operation centre is a key benefit too.
