SDX, the digital asset trading venue being built from the ground up by Swiss stock exchange operator SIX Group, had been searching for a new leader to take over from interim CEO Thomas Kindler. As the new head of business, Grant fills that role, a spokesman for SDX confirmed.
Tim Grant, formerly the CEO of ConsenSys-backed startup DrumG Technologies, is to become head of business at Swiss blockchain-based stock exchange SDX.
Grant has also previously served as CEO of the R3 Lab and Research Centre. SDX selected R3’s Corda platform to supply the DLT infrastructure for the new digital asset exchange in March of 2019.
“I am very excited to join the leadership team at SDX as they aim to launch the world’s first end-to-end digital exchange”, said Grant in a statement. “The team has already made huge progress and I’m looking forward to contributing my experience and working with our institutional clients around the work to continue the growth and expansion of the next generation of financial market infrastructure.”
It’s unclear where this leaves Grant’s other venture, DrumG. The startup, which aimed to create interoperability between enterprise versions of ethereum and R3’s Corda network, had raised some $6.5 million in Series A funding from ConsenSys back in October 2018, and Joe Lubin, CEO of the ethereum studio, had joined DrumG’s board of directors.
As recently as last September, Grant was taking to the stage espousing the merits of DrumG Technologies, which employs about 20 staff across offices in New York, London and Bermuda.
However, ConsenSys appears to be re-calibrating its outgoings and has been forced to cut staff this year from some parts of its operations.
Neither Grant, DrumG nor ConsenSys returned requests for comment on the state of the venture by press time.
Bumpy road
The past 18 months have been something of a bumpy road for SDX. The project was forced to delay its role-out, slated for summer 2019, until around the end of this year.
In addition, Ivo Sauter, SDX’s head of clients and products, and Sven Roth, its chief digital officer, both left their full-time positions in January, with a “dis-alignment” from the project’s original goals being cited after original SDX chief Martin Halblaub departed last summer.
Tomas Kindler, who was filling in for Halblaud, expressed a wish to take a senior position within the main exchange group, according to a SIX spokesman. Kindler would help oversee the planned integration of Bolsas y Mercados Españoles (BME), the Spanish stock exchange SIX has bid for.
“Tim has a comprehensive background in both the new and old worlds of capital markets innovation”, said Thomas Zeeb, head Securities Exchanges at SIX Group, and chairman of SDX, said in a statement.
“This background is an essential prerequisite to successfully lead the development of SDX and to fulfil SIX’s growth ambition to build the financial ecosystem of the future. We are pleased to have him on board and look forward to working with him to execute our vision”, he said.
Bitcoin’s Price Recovery May Take Months: Fundstrat Analyst
Bitcoin’s (BTC) road to recovery could be a long one, according to Rob Sluymer, a technical researcher at market research firm Fundstrat Global Advisors.
Per Bloomberg on March 20, Sluymer wrote in a recent note that Bitcoin’s price action was severely compromised by the recent price drop. He wrote:
“The crypto breakdown over the past week mirrored the ‘get me out of everything’ panic that dominated all asset classes, whether they were defensive (bonds and gold) or not (equities). … Lower highs and lower lows are in place for Bitcoin, leaving in a compromised, potentially vulnerable longer-term profile.”
Still, Sluymer admitted that Bitcoin stayed above its 200-week average, which he believes to be a major long-term structural support level for most assets. He also pointed out that this indicator worked for Bitcoin in both 2015 and 2018, adding:
“For now, technically we will again give Bitcoin the benefit of the doubt that it is attempting to bottom but recognize Bitcoin will likely need months of consolidation to repair the technical damage now in place.”
Sub-$5,000 Bitcoin sees major buying pressure
Vijay Ayyar, the head of business development at crypto exchange Luno, pointed out that there was a major buying pressure for Bitcoin under $5,000, which indicates seller exhaustion:
“These prices were potentially below running cost for many miners, and we’ve seen hash rates drop. Miners are also better off just buying Bitcoin at such prices so there could be that aspect as well.”
As Bitcoin approaches the expected halving of the block reward in under two months, Ayyar expects the prices will reach $6,500 again before stabilizing between $3,000 and $6,000 until the next bull run, concluding:
“This is classic redistribution and would be very healthy for future Bitcoin price action and if we were to have bullish momentum going forward.”
As of press time, Bitcoin’s price already broke $6,500 to trade at $6,700, up nearly 20% over the last 24 hours.
A change in Bitcoin’s investor expectations
While the recent cryptocurrency downturn resulted in a loss of confidence in Bitcoin, the rebound that came shortly after shows that optimism has returned among some investors. The founder and CEO of Global Macro Investor, Raoul Pal, recently said that he is quite bullish on Bitcoin after the asset recovered by about 80% in just one week.
As Cointelegraph reported earlier today, Italy’s Banco Sella recently launched a Bitcoin trading service as part of its smart banking platform Hype.
