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CrossTower to buy BEQUANT as part of reset of digital asset market


30 November 2022 US
Reporter: Bob Currie

Generic business image for news article
Image: AdobeStock/Vitalii Vodolazskyi
CrossTower has agreed a deal to purchase digital prime broker and custodian-administrator BEQUANT for an undisclosed price.

New York-based crypto-exchange CrossTower says that the BEQUANT acquisition will add a further 600 professional customers, generating more than US$400 billion in annual turnover, to its book of clients.

This represents part of CrossTower’s plans to expand its product suite for a global market covering the US and Bermuda, Europe, Latin America and Asia.

CrossTower will also launch the first ESG Crypto Fund, released in partnership with Lydian Group.

Through these initiatives, CrossTower says that it aims to “become a focal point for industry reset and consolidation”.

BEQUANT founder and CEO George Zarya says: “The market requires consolidation for the next stage of its maturity. Undoubtedly, the market will continue to grow and evolve with stronger regulation and with large balance sheets and it will earn back the trust of investors.

“We are uniquely positioned to bridge the gap with traditional finance and to modernise financial infrastructure. The combination of BEQUANT and CrossTower will allow us to have a truly global reach.”

CrossTower CEO Kapil Rethi adds: “We are stabilising an industry with incredible promise, regaining trust and rebuilding the future of finance. Rebuilding requires capital and a management team with regulatory and operational expertise.

“With the launch of our fund and the BEQUANT acquisition, we are repositioning CrossTower to lead the growth of this industry with proper regulatory oversight, integrity and accountability.”

As a backer of the transaction and partner in the creation of an ESG crypto fund, Lydian Group sees a major opportunity for “a clean and necessary reset of the digital asset market”.

According to the group, the past few months have demonstrated the limitations brought to the market by a lack of experience among many founders in managing assets and customer funds, alongside amateur governance models, and a lack of transparency and effective reporting.

This, it says, has been reinforced by “reckless behaviour of stakeholders with large asset pools”.

“This reset can only happen around management teams that are experienced in building traditional money market processes, while embracing new asset classes, innovative technologies and a deep understanding of necessary regulations and processes,” says Lydian Group, which was founded by Mangrove Capital’s Gerard Lopez and AI specialist and tech entrepreneur Greg Fishman.
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