just now
November 28, 2022 - CrossTower, the cryptocurrency trading platform, announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire BEQUANT, a prime brokerage and digital asset exchange, for an undisclosed amount. CrossTower also announced the launch of the first ESG Crypto Fund, in partnership with the Lydian Group, to invest in and rebuild companies that have promising futures.
BEQUANT, with its institutional trading and prime brokerage platform, will enable CrossTower to expand its suite of professional grade products for a global market, covering the US, Bermuda, Europe, Latin America, and Asia. Through this acquisition, CrossTower will add over 600 professional exchange clients, generating over $400 billion of yearly turnover with more than a dozen exchanges connected to its platform.
Their ESG Crypto Fund will invest in companies focused on the following areas:
1) Environment – They argue that the industry must become smarter at managing energy costs, given the reduced asset pricing and the overall cost of energy.
2) Social – They believe that the industry's image has been tarnished by a few players' greed and there is a need to put the people and the democratization of finance back into the center of what makes crypto important.
3) Governance – They conetend that biggest failure of the companies in trouble today has been the human failure. There needs to be proper governance – a proper board structure; related party checks and balances; and traditional business expertise. Crypto companies need to change to recreate value.
This transaction has been backed by the Lydian Group, founded by tech industry veterans Gerard Lopez, Co-Founder of Mangrove Capital and global tech investor, and Greg Fishman, tech entrepreneur and software architect in AI technology.
The Lydian Group leadership and board includes:
• Chris Davis – Chief Marketing Officer and Senior Vice President of New Balance
• Lars Fjeldsoe-Nielsen – Founder of 2xN and former General Partner of Balderton Capital
• Gavin Patterson – President and Chief Strategy Officer of Salesforce and former British Telecom CEO
• Mark Tluszcz – Co-Founder of Mangrove Capital Partners and Chairman of Wix.com
• Alex Zubillaga – Founder of 14W Capital, formerly an Executive at Warner Music Group, and Advisor to Spotify
Lydian Group sees an opportunity for a clean and necessary reset of the digital asset market. The last few months have shown the limitations brought to the market by the lack of experience of many founders in managing assets and customer funds; amateur governance models; a lack of reporting; a lack of transparency; and, in general, reckless behavior of stakeholders with large asset pools. This reset can only happen around management teams that are experienced in building traditional money management processes, while embracing new asset classes, innovative technologies, and a deep understanding of necessary regulations and processes.
The Lydian Group founders have established some of the largest players in this space from media to digital wallets and metaverse development companies. Lydian Group's media arm is Cointelegraph, which boasts a 44% market share and over 130 million users globally. Other companies controlled by the founders include Verse Estate, Seamm, Stevia, Coin360, and others.
Through this acquisition, CrossTower aims to become a focal point for the industry reset and consolidation, using its newly launched ESG Crypto Fund.
Kapil Rathi – CEO of CrossTower said: "We are stabilizing 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 positioning CrossTower to lead the growth of this industry, with proper regulatory oversight, integrity, and accountability.
George Zarya – Founder and CEO of BEQUANT said: "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 larger balance sheets, and it will earn back the trust of investors. We are uniquely positioned to bridge the gap with traditional finance and to modernize financial infrastructure. The combination of BEQUANT and CrossTower will allow us to have a truly global reach."
Gerard Lopez – CEO of Lydian Group said: "We have watched how this industry, which has massive potential to change global finance, has been brought to a dangerous state by the lack of professionalism and transparency managing vast amounts of client assets. For the last 25 years, we have always backed invocation in technology with real-life experienced management. We have generated billions of dollars in return for our stakeholders, while building solid companies that perform over time. The choice of the people managing CrossTower, and the experience of our board members, are all necessary to the group succeeding in helping this industry back to its required strength and trustworthiness."
Greg Fishman – CIO of Lydian Group said: "I focused my career on the evolution of structures on top of basic software layers. We have experienced several market cycles and we are in a current market meltdown. This is a critical moment and an exciting moment. Poor businesses are being cleaned up making the way for promising technology stacks, pure web3.0 and decentralized virtual worlds. By uniting CrossTower and BEQUANT, we create an organization that is built for safety, transparency, and trust. During the next market cycle, the whole industry must focus on building for the people."
