Head of the London metal exchange canceled for crypto startup

The head of the London metal exchange steps back to lead a start-up that ensures cryptocurrencies for major investors.

Komainu, a custody company for digital assets supported by Nomura and the billion-dollar hedge fund manager Alan Howard, appointed Matthew Chamberlain on Friday.

The step of Chamberlain, which has been heading the world's largest marketplace for industrial metals since 2017, underlines how experienced managers from traditional markets continue to be lured into the rapidly growing world of digital assets.

Many banking and fund managers are very interested in exploring cryptocurrencies trade, but rejected responsibility to keep their own digital assets.

Promise companies such as Komainu to keep Bitcoin, ether and other cryptocurrencies on behalf of their owners. Named after the stone lion dogs that guard the entrance to Shinto shrines, it was founded in 2018 as a joint venture between Nomura, the blockchain company Ledger and the crypto investor Coinhares.

Komainu collected $ 25 million in a financing round of Series A and has assets of around $ 5 billion in custody.

Chamberlain-a former head of European financial technology at UBS-justified his decision to exchange raw materials for crypto, and said that he firmly believes in the transformative capacity of a blockchain-supported world.

"But such technologies will only develop their true potential if there is a robust infrastructure that you provide to everyone who wants to participate in this unprecedented time of financial democratization," he said.

Chamberlain, 39, will switch to Komainu in May. Adrian Farnham, head of the LME Clearing House, will temporarily act as CEO, while the stock exchange, which is owned by Hong Kong Exchange and Clearing, is looking for a replacement.

Chamberlain came to the LME in 2012 after he advised HKEX on his 2.2 billion dollar acquisition of the market when he was a banker at UBS.

He was praised for the fact that he enforced a complicated reform of the much -revealed storage system of the LME after buyers had complained over long queues in order to be able to access their metals.

five years later he was appointed Chief Executive, the youngest head of a large stock exchange, to try to stop a decline in trade in the face of the competition from competitors such as the CME Group from the USA and the Shanghai Futures Exchange.

He started to modernize the stock exchange, which is famous for their trading pit with an open outcry, where dealers with shouting and hand movements carry out tailor -made orders for industrial metals such as copper, nickel, lead and zinc.

It was his plan to tip the 145-year-old stock exchange in the direction of a structure that is more familiar with mainstream financing investors and hedge funds.

he also started an initiative for responsible procurement, and under his leadership, the Stockets banned parquet dealers and their auxiliary people to consume alcohol during working hours.

The LME also presented its first code of conduct to make sexist entertainment on the LME Week, her annual hype in the center of London.

The activities on the LME remained damped, however, the Volumina in 2021 shrank the third year in a row - although the index of the six main metals increased the year by more than 30 percent, the highest value since 2009.

Chamberlain was frustrated by his plans to permanently close the distinctive ring trade space of the LME and its famous red sofas after brokers and industrial dealers fought to switch to a fully electronic market.

After surviving the pandemic, the graduate of Cambridge informatics decided that it was time to move and face a new challenge, according to the situation.

"Just like the LME market installation is for the raw material range," said one of the people, Komainu was "market installation for digital assets".