Switzerland's digital exchange project, SDX, named a new business chief. The new hire is a blockchain veteran who formerly ran R3, a research center for distributed ledger technology.
The Swiss stock exchange is hiring Tim Grant to run SDX, its digital exchange subsidiary, it said in a statement on Thursday. SIX didn't specify when Grant, who is currently based in New York, will begin.
«SDX is not only aiming to build the world’s first fully-regulated end-to-end DLT based digital asset exchange, but is creating a whole ecosystem that is expected to transform the financial services industry, and Tim will drive this vision,» SIX securities and exchanges head Thomas Zeeb said.
Corda Expertise
Grant is a coup, but Switzerland's lofty goals for SDX face considerable hurdles, as finews.com reported last year. Grant ran R3, a London-based research lab for distributed ledger technology, or DLT, for nearly two years until 2017.
Backed by a host of big investment bankers, R3 developed Corda, a type of blockchain that SDX opted for last year. Grant joins SDX from Drumg, a financial start-up he co-founded in 2017 and currently runs.
From Trading to Blockchain
He began his career at UBS' investment bank as a graduate trainee in 1999 and spent more than 11 years with the Swiss bank in two stints. During the financial crisis of 2008/09, the former trader was part of a crisis team tasked with unwinding a massive portfolio of toxic assets which pushed UBS into taking a Swiss government bailout.
