Kenetic’s Co-founder and Managing Partner to join Hex Trust’s Board
Hong Kong-based digital asset custody and servicing platform Hex Trust has secured a strategic investment from Asian digital assets and blockchain investment firm Kenetic, according to a statement released by Hex Trust on Wednesday.
The fresh capital will be channeled towards developing Hex Trust’s bank-grade infrastructure platform, as well as strengthening Hex Trust’s position as a digital asset custodian and infrastructure platform in Asia, the statement noted.
Further, Co-founder and Managing Partner of 2016-founded Kenetic, Jehan Chu will be joining Hex Trust’s Board of Directors, the statement also said.
“The investment from Kenetic and the active participation of Jehan arrives in an important moment during our growth phase at Hex Trust, as we integrate additional services, onboard new clients and expand geographically,” Co-founder and CEO of Hex Trust, Alessio Quaglini said in the statement.
Founded in 2017, Hex Trust offers compliance-based digital asset solutions for financial institutions, including secure holding services for assets in custody, clearing and settlement services, lending and staking, and access to trading markets.
Hex Trust institutional clients span exchanges, investment funds and family offices, in addition to “three milestone banking clients in Asia and Europe”, the statement said.
Further, the company has also secured partnerships with IBM and enterprise blockchain software firm R3, and is the first digital asset custodian in Hong Kong to integrate R3’s open-source business blockchain platform Corda, the statement added.
Prior to the investment by Kenetic, Hex had earlier raised seed funding for an undisclosed amount from Italy-based early stage investor Boost Heroes in 2019.
“Digital assets will transform capital markets and facilitate the greatest economic expansion the world has seen in a century, and we believe experienced teams like Hex Trust are positioned to capture the Asian Market,” Chu said in the statement.
“We are thrilled to join Hex Trust on their mission to bring banks and financial institutions into the digital asset age,” he added.
The investment in Hex Trust is Kenetic’s third investment so far this year. The investment firm had earlier participated in a US$5.5 million venture round in multi-chain multi-cloud blockchain deployment facilitator Blockdaemon in May. It also took part in crypto lending startup BlockFi’s $30 million Series B in February this year.
Custodial services are taking off–earlier this week, South Korea’s largest bank KB Kookmin announced that it will begin offering digital asset custodial services in partnership with Seoul-based smart contract auditor Haechi Labs, crypto exchange Cumberland Korea, and Seoul- and Silicon Valley-based blockchain venture fund Hashed.
However, secure custodial services are still a niche segment in the blockchain ecosystem, and are currently too small to match demand or promote investor confidence, despite being a vital line of defense against hacks.
